


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT: 





































































































































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Rev. R. N. McKaig, D. D. 


The Life and Times 


OF 

The Holy Spirit 


VOLUME I 


ROBERT N; McKAIG, D. D. 





The Christian Witness Co. 

CHICAGO AND BOSTON 


LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
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MAR 5 1908 

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COPYRIGHT 1908 

BY 

The Christian Witness Co. 


DEDICATION 


TO LAURA BESWICK. 

Who for more than thirty-six years has been my 
faithful wife and who has never counseled any com- 
promise of truth for the sake of popularity, nor re- 
fused any service or sacrifice for the comfort of 
home or prosperity of the churches we have served, 
this volume is affectionately dedicated. 

















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INTRODUCTION 


This volume is composed of sermons and Bible 
readings that have been given in Pentecostal meet- 
ings, at Annual Conferences and at many Camp 
Meetings in the Middle West. I am indebted for 
many suggestions to many of my brethren in the 
ministry, to the testimony of the laymen and to 
many authors whose books I have read. 

If any man claims anything in the book I throw 
up both hands and surrender. Let us have no con- 
troversy — he can have all he wants. Believing that 
the Holy Spirit will accompany the written word as 
he has the preaching I submit it to the reading 
public. 

R. N. McKaig. 

Sioux City, la., Jan., 1908 . 


5 



♦ 



CONTENTS 


CHAPTER I. 

The Three Dispensations n 

CHAPTER II. 

The Promise of Tee Holy Spirit 33 

CHAPTER III. 

The Holy Spirit and How to Receive Him 51 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Ministry of The Holy Spirit 77 

CHAPTER V. 

The Anointing With The Holy Spirit 99 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Sealing With The Holy Spirit in 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Earnest of The Holy Spirit 123 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Guidance of The Holy Spirit 13 1 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Gifts of The Holy Spirit 149 

CHAPTER X. 

The Fruit of The Holy Spirit 171 













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SCRIPTURE LESSON. 


THE THREE DISPENSATIONS. 

Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of 
persons ; but in every nation he that feareth him and 
worketh righteousness is accepted with him. Acts 
10-34, 35 - 

For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, 
but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy 
Ghost. Rom. 14, 17. 

Ye believe in God, believe also in me. John 14, 1. 

Receive ye the Holy Ghost. John 20, 22. 


9 



CHAPTER I. 

THE THREE DISPENSATIONS. 

The twelve gates of pearl are each swung open 
on two hinges, the immutable word and the eternal 
oath of Jehovah. And through these gates we see 
that the very throne of God is security to the Son 
that His kingdom on earth shall obtain. 

“The Kingdom of God” on earth is that divine 
system of Grace and Truth which with various de- 
grees of light and certainty points out to all sinners 
on the face of the earth the way of eternal salvation. 
This kingdom has its great periods, or cycles for 
timeliness marks all the ways and all the works of 
the Infinite God. 

It is a pleasing task to study the manifestation of 
Truth as it comes in single file at the command of 
Jehovah to bless the world. Its forms are not sep- 
arate and independent entities, and activities, but 
different manifestations of the same divine and 
eternal unity, each truth harmonizing with each pre- 
ceding truth and all in perfect sympathy with both 


11 


12 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


God and man, and all designed to lead man back 
and up into union and fellowship with the Infinite 
God. 

The kingdom of God is overshadowing everyone 
of us at the present moment like a divine incubation 
with wings baptized with celestial fire ready and 
able to lift us up into higher and richer fields of 
grace and glory as soon as we are able. We think 
we are ever ready for we are always slow to believe 
that on account of our own carnality and earthliness 
many of the heavenly things would do us harm, just 
as air would be death to a fish if the fish was lifted 
out of the water, but for forty centuries the truth 
could only reach this world by pictures, shadows, 
signs and symbols, and even while hovering over us 
today the Holy Spirit often whispers : "I have many 
things to tell you, but ye cannot bear them now.” 

God has divided this great kingdom into three dis- 
pensations. 

I. The dispensation of the Father. 

II. The dispensation of the Son. 

III. The dispensation of the Holy Spirit. 

The fundamental idea of the kingdom is God 
manifest in the flesh. In the first, man was created. 
The second, the God man was created. In the third, 
God comes to dwell in man. These divisions are not 


The Three Dispensations. 


13 


made by caprice, or for convenience, but are accord- 
ing to Supreme Wisdom, for the implantation, pro- 
gression and development of the divine nature in our 
humanity. 

These dispensations are not marked out by definite 
coast lines, or separated by intervening spaces, but 
are contiguous like the colors of the rose in which 
there is some space where no one can tell which color 
obtains. 

In the Old Testament times the first was preva- 
lent. During the ministry of John and of Christ the 
second was prevalent. And at Pentecost the third 
obtained ; yet there were a few choice souls even in 
the first who looked through the second and saw the 
glory that should follow and experienced to some 
degree the third. Just as ripe fruit will sometimes be 
found amid the blossoms when spring and summer 
meet together in the same tree. 

These dispensations which come in succession are 
now coexistent and are characterized by specific sav- 
ing truths and experiences and in each of them there 
are living today multitudes of sincere and noble 
souls. 

1. Standing in the defective light of the first dis- 
pensation, conscious of our immortality, for that is 
an essential element of manhood, the Truth first 


14 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


dawns upon us that there is but one God — maker of 
earth and heaven, judge of all men, and this truth 
produces within uS a SERIOUS GODLY FEAR, 
and that is the initial element in the kingdom of God. 
The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. The 
highest idea of God was an Almighty Being to be 
feared and obeyed. The highest idea of piety was 
one who “feared God with all his house.” The word 
“fear” is repeated about 600 times in the Old Testa- 
ment, while the word “faith” occurs but twice. Yet 
for more than a century of earth’s history there was 
only one family that feared God. The flood— the 
overthrow of Babel, the plagues of Egypt, were 
meant to teach the people to fear God and to con- 
vince them that all other gods were vanities and lies. 

The nearest approach to God the soul could make 
was to fear Him and keep His commandments and 
under the first dispensation this was the whole duty 
of man. 

2. Another feature of this dispensation is the 
PRACTICE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. Peter says, 
“Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of 
persons, but in every nation he that feareth him and 
worketh righteousness is accepted with him.” Paul 
says that the living God does good to all men, giving 
them rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons that he 


The Three Dispensations. 


i5 


may not be left without a witness, and whosoever 
will believe the witnesses receive the knowledge 
which sunshine and rain give, and which the night 
showeth ; hear the speech which the day uttereth and 
behold the glory which the heavens declare and who 
do the right as God gives them to see the right 
stand in favor with God, in the first dispensation 
and God will take him at last into His arms and say, 
as He did to Cyrus, (Is. 45-4) *T have called thee by 
thy name, I have surnamed thee though thou hast 
never known me.” In the presence of these righteous 
men, many modern Christians would be impercepti- 
ble. 

3. Another thing that marks the genesis of this 
dispensation is the Spirit of Caste, or in its milder 
form SECTARIANISM. 

The spirit of permeation is entirely absent and the 
spirit of separation pervades the whole period. 

One nation was set apart from other nations and 
that nation was subdivided and one- tribe separated 
from other tribes. 

Certain days were separated from other days and 
certain meats were separated from other meats. Cer- 
tain clothing was separated from other clothing, and 
certain works were holy and others unholy. No 
prayers were offered, no sermons were preached, no 


16 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

money given for the spread of the truth among 
heathen nations. 

They have wealth and learning and a perfect sys- 
tem of worship, but they never once think of saving 
the Gentiles. Their sacrifices and priesthood, their 
splendid tabernacle and magnificent temple, drew 
the world in admiration, but the truth was not 
offered to a single nation. If a stranger tarried 
within their gates, he was tolerated, but not allowed 
to spread the Hebrew faith among his heathen broth- 
ers. Their policy was to preserve their nationality 
intact, and perfect their own ecclesiasticism till one 
should come in the flesh and reign forever on the 
throne of David. 

The religion of this dispensation is never dif- 
fusive. The great effort is to save self. 

4. Another feature of this dispensation is the uni- 
versal desire for the coming CHRIST. 

There was an intense crying to have their God 
come in the flesh and reign as king. They wanted 
to see Him with their eyes and hear Him with their 
ears and handle Him with their hands. Many of them 
prophesied of the coming God. One of them said, 
“My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living 
God.” In order to satisfy this intense longing of the 
flesh, God granted them a number of brief visible 


The Three Dispensations. 


17 


incarnations before the time of Bethlehem. They 
had announced His coming so many times that when 
Jesus was born this desire was almost universal. So 
that wise men from the East came saying, “Where 
is he which is born king of the Jews, for we have 
seen His star in the East and are come to worship 
him. ,, The Greeks had the same undefined longing 
and a band of them came saying, “We zvould see 
Jesus” No doubt there were multitudes of men in 
the olden times who were longing for a divine 
teacher. They were looking out through the win- 
dows and crying through the lattice, “Why is his 
chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the wheels 
of his chariot ?” 

In the first dispensation many men and women 
have become eminent in the world's history. The 
dim light of tradition, the knowledge they acquired 
through “the things that are made" enabled them to 
grasp many truths. There was Solon the Athenian 
Lawgiver, and Aristides the Just, Plato and the 
Queen of the Dark Land, with many others, whose 
traveling preachers were the sun, moon and stars, 
though they never had read the law of Moses, they 
never had a minister ordained by man, yet with un- 
seared consciences they found among the silent stars, 
a Nathan to accuse them, an Elijah to threaten them, 


18 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

a Jacob to warn them, a Moses to teach them and 
a Joshua to lead them towards heaven’s gate. All 
the soldiers, publicans and tax gatherers with Zac- 
cheus, who received the words of John when he 
preached repentance and the gospel of righteousness, 
belonged to this dispensation. There are multitudes 
of men and women in this country, some of them in 
the churches, and many of them outside the churches, 
who are living in the dim light of this dispensation, 
who are shading their eyes, looking and longing to 
see God. John Wesley says that no man living is 
without some preventing grace. And every degree 
of grace is a degree of life. There is a measure of 
light that enlightens every man that cometh into the 
world. Every human being has a measure of grace 
(unless he cast it away), and those who use it will be 
accepted of God in the Judgment Day, whether Jew 
or Greek, or Christian, or Heathen. 

The atonement of Christ covers the deficiency of 
ability in the case of infants, and also covers the de- 
ficiency of opportunity in the case of the heathen. 
Brainerd found American Indians who believed in 
God who when they could not dissuade their com- 
panions from drinking and carousing would run 
away into the woods, crying unto the Good Spirit, 
though they had never heard the voice of a mission- 


The Three Dispensations. 


19 


ary. Bishop Taylor found a great many heathen in 
Africa who believed in the God of the Universe, and 
worshipped Him, just as Paul found them in Cor- 
inth. 

One poor woman in the depths of Africa, broke 
out in the most plaintive cry when he preached Jesus 
unto her. “Oh, that is He who has come to me. so 
often in my prayers, but I couldn’t find out who He 
was.” Beneath thousands and thousands of repul- 
sive exteriors there are golden wings, delicately 
folded, by which, when life’s rough day is over their 
souls shall wing their way from a pillow of straw 
to the bosom of the Lamb of God and He will say to 
them, “Though ye have lain among the pots, yet 
shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver 
and her feathers with yellow gold.” 

We pass from this dispensation with the follow- 
ing soliloquy. 

1. The theology that declares that all who have 
not heard of the birth at Bethlehem, or the death on 
Calvary, can have no benefit from the Atonement of 
Christ, is certainly contrary to the word of God, and 
is irresistibly and universally denied by the common 
judgment and conscience of man, for if some va- 
grant ship should carry you to a far off heathen 
island where no single ear had ever heard the first 


20 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


word about Christ, underneath the thick crust of 
savage life you will find the same old reaching after 
God that you left behind you in the streets and pews 
of home. 

2. The theology that points to all the vast major- 
ity of the human race, to the entire population of 
countries for generations and centuries, suspending 
their eternal salvation upon the conduct of men on 
the other side of the globe is the natural Mother of 
two sons, “Infidelity,” and that Bastard Fatherless 
Child, called “Second Probation/' 

3. The theology that makes the all knowing God 
eternally condemn the Mohammedan and Pagan 
worlds, while he saves the American church— full of 
wealth and luxury listening with bated breath to the 
retaliation measures, and shameful, outrageous, con- 
gressional bills to keep the condemned heathen away,- 
takes the disgrace from all the damned, and puts it 
as a bloody chaplet on the brow of an all loving God, 
and makes him a Devil. 

II. We now stand in the second dispensation 
and observe how the truth and grace of God are fur- 
ther revealed to man. 

The dispensation of the Son is a brief one. It was 
prophesied that He would make a short work upon 
the earth. The Truth manifested in the second dis- 


The Three Dispensations. 


21 


pensation is the birth of Christ, His words and His 
works — His vicarious death— His resurrection and 
ascension. The grace revealed is the grace of par- 
don for the penitents, the grace of peace with God 
through our Lord Jesus Christ to the believer. The 
grace of freedom from the condemnation of sin. 
Then by the operation of the Spirit of God upon 
the hearts of these penitent believers, they have the 
grace of Sonship with the witness of the Spirit in 
their hearts, crying Abba, Father. The word of 
God in this dispensation is not yet the law of liberty 
in the soul, but like an armed bodyguard it goes be- 
fore him saying, “Thou shalt be this and thou shalt 
do that,” and like an armed rearguard it declares, 
“Thou shalt not be this and thou shalt not do that,” 
and thus the word of God as it marches before him 
and behind him has the power for the repression of 
sin, but not the power of extermination. 

I. The conscious experience of sustaining grace 
in this dispensation is variable. As Theodore Cuyler 
says there is a lamentable alternation between a 
foaming fullness and the pitiful dribble of an August 
drought. There are transfiguration scenes and then 
cock crowing experiences. There are soarings on 
the wings of some Spiritual Hail Columbia, till the 
soul would here no longer stay. Then tossed on the 


22 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


bosom of some pestiferous doubt, the cry of the fool 
is heard, “There is no God.” 

II. The soul life of this dispensation while it is 
freed from the dominion of sin seems to be walled 
in with traditions, ordinances and sectarianisms. The 
letter is learned, but the great, loving spirit of Jesus 
is not fully received. And the ears of Jesus often 
hear this statement : “Master, we saw some casting 
out devils in thy name and we forbade them because 
they followed not us.” 

Contentions are frequently heard. I am of Paul, 
and I am of Apollos and sometimes the church dedi- 
cated to the God of Love, seems to be in sympathy 
with the goddess of discord, whom Aristides de- 
scribes as having fierce eyes, a wan countenance, 
pale lips, long fingers and a dagger in her bosom. 
Love is so mixed with self-interest and personal am- 
bition that it can scarcely be called love. There are 
thousands of Christians living in this variable irreg- 
ular life, which God intended to be a short experi- 
ence as an introductory to a greater life in Christ. 
We pass from this period with the following solilo- 
quy. A vineyard exists for the purpose of maturing 
vines and obtaining grapes. He must be a curious 
vinedresser who denies the existence of wine and 
grapes in a colder climate, or who doubts the quality 


The Three Dispensations. 


23 


of grapes because they are larger and ripen sooner 
in a warmer climate beyond the precincts of his own 
vineyard. 

III. We come now to the third dispensation, that 
of the Holy Spirit. It is true the Holy Spirit 
worked in the first dispensation producing repent- 
ance and godly fear. He also applied the blood for 
the forgiveness of sins and produced the new birth 
in the second dispensation. But now the Holy Spirit 
as the Official Successor of Jesus, becomes the abid- 
ing Comforter who remains with us forever. 

The Believer who is in the third dispensation is 
one who has gone through the ministry of repent- 
ance and followed Jesus in the regeneration and 
then by an act of entire consecration and an inces- 
sant faith in the cleansing blood of Christ, has re- 
ceived the Pentecostal baptism with the Holy Spirit. 

First, we saw the dimmest light, and in the faintest 
tones heard the voice of God, and we longed and 
struggled in the dark to return to our Creator. 

Then we saw the Divine method of return. The 
revealed way of access over which blessings and 
prayer may pass and repass with confident golden 
feet. Then comes the further revelation of truth in 
which the eternal virtues are manifested to us in the 
most intimate and blissful relations of which a man 


24 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


is capable. Not through creation, or providence, nor 
by the letter of the law being crystalized into doc- 
trines and commandments, but the rear guard has 
closed up on the vanguard and the Word of God 
itself is transcribed in the heart and becomes a law 
within, through which the soul is freed from all fear 
and is surcharged with the Holy Spirit. And this 
Divine Spirit mingling with our spirit fills us with 
the peace of God which passeth all understanding, 
and the joy of the Lord which is unutterable and full 
of glory. 

Not that this is the climax of life, but merely the 
entrance into the land that God has promised to give 
us and which is yet to be possessed. 

The wine of ancient Italy was so luscious that 
when the Gauls tasted it they refused to trade for 
the wine, or buy it, but held a counsel of war and 
resolved to conquer the whole land where it was 
made and possess it themselves ! 

So when the third person of the adorable Trinity 
comes into these tabernacles, he makes the truth so 
delicious, the service so delightful, the communion 
so rapturous, that the whole soul resolves by the 
grace of God, upon the conquest of all the land and 
the whole Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and 
the violent take it by force. 


The Three Dispensations. 


25 


I. One thing of special observation now is the 
vigor and reach of faith. 

In the first age physical manifestations were de- 
manded. Faith leaned upon torches, sights and 
sounds and dew on the fleece, cloud by day and fire 
by night, manna from the Heaven and water from 
the flinty rock were all demanded to sustain the 
faith. 

Then in the second dispensation, faith is often 
weak for the evil heart of unbelief is only repressed 
and not extirpated, brought under dominion, but 
not cast out, and it often gives us battle, but now 
faith begins its triumphant march. The march of 
faith is like an army moving through the heart of 
the enemy’s country. It reveals its progress by scat- 
tering along its path the things it has learned to do 
without. Faith begins down there where desires lord 
it over us and we cannot do without luxuries at the 
table, cannot do without a cigar or a glass of wine. 
Then we rise above the grasp of appetites, money, 
praise, honor and ease into the higher necessities 
and truths of God, till we can say with the disciples 
after they had left their boats and nets, “Lord, show 
us the Father and it sufficeth us, ”» then pressing on 
into the essential life of God, He will give us in some 
way or another that wonderful levitation of soul 


26 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


when we can be happy, and go on doing without the 
sun, moon and stars. 

Enoch and Elijah traveled along this highway of 
faith, casting off one necessity after another, taking 
God as their portion in one calamity after another, 
assimilating higher truths and virtues till at last 
their faith took in God only, their mortality was 
swallowed up of life and they were not for God took 
them. 

2. In this period humanity is always greater than 
technicality. The church has squandered a vast 
amount of time and wasted a vast amount of energy 
in quarreling over technicalities, while souls have 
perished for lack of knowledge, but in this period 
the soul overflows the logical statement of creeds 
and the life rises above the walls of sectarianism. I 
remember a large cotton plantation in one of the val- 
leys of Alabama. In the spring the slaves with plows 
and shovels built low mud walls between the farms 
and planted the cotton seed. The seed sprang up 
and kissed the sunlight, and the cotton grew; and 
the rains beat down the walls, so that in the fall these 
farms were not only white as snow, but they were 
joined together in one great valley of whiteness. We 
have been like the cotton fields in the spring, but we 
are growing and whitening and when the Holy Spirit 


The Three Dispensations. 


27 


comes down like rain upon the mown grass and as 
showers that water the earth; then we shall all be 
washed in the cleansing blood and made whiter than 
snow ! then we shall clasp hands over these covered 
walls and be united and inseparable forever, having 
one purpose, one heart, one faith, one Spirit, one 
Lord, one God and Father of all. 

3. In this dispensation every believer is endued 
with the constraining power of love and is a propa- 
gandist. The soul has reached a period of exclusive 
devotion to benevolence, when its supreme concern- 
ment is not self-interest or family pride, church or 
ecclesiastical glory, but the evangelization of the 
world. The enduement of the Divine Spirit is the 
efficient, crowning impulse for the redemption of the 
race. 

The fact of the soul’s value is not of sufficient 
force to carry us through the trials of the cross. The 
fact of the soul’s danger is not of sufficient force to 
make us triumph over the enemies that are destroy- 
ing it. The fact of human sympathy with wretched- 
ness and woe is not of sufficient force to keep us effec- 
tual in the service of God. Only when the heart is 
surcharged with Divine Love fresh from the heart of 
Jesus is it pained with such anguish for lost men 
that it can easily die, but cannot give them up. 


28 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


Why do men go to the Black Hills because gold 
is there ? That is not the full answer. Because gold 
is imprisoned in the rough mountains and they want 
to make it useful ? That is not the full answer. This 
is the answer in classic phrase. Plutus, the son of 
Jason and Cerez, has implanted in their souls a con- 
suming love for gold and away to the hills they go. 
The Black Hills of humanity are in the distance. The 
dark tents are upon their sides, and in the valleys 
shall we wait for someone to come from the canons 
or the low lands and tell us of precious souls, their 
value, sin, misery and danger and beg us to perform 
our duty. Will that arouse us? Will that give us 
an impulse that will last till we die? Is that the 
philosophy of salvation? Out of which side of the 
chasm springs the bridge of salvation? Out of the 
side of Misery and Woe or from the side of Love 
and Glory? 

Did some towering man, growing beyond his fel- 
lows, overlook the battlements of heaven and waken 
with his loud cries, for pity and mercy, a negligent 
and forgetful God. Oh, no. Activity began on the 
other side. It is the very soul of the gospel that we 
love Him because he first loved us. The commenda- 
tion of our Gospel is that when we were yet sinners 
Christ died for us. Thus making a bridge across 


The Three Dispensations. 29 

the gulf from the divine side of existence, over which 
we may walk back into the joy and glory where we 
belong. This divine love is the impulse that will 
carry us to the ends of the earth. This divine love 
came into the heart of Scotland’s great man and sent 
him to the Black Hills, carrying the rudiments of 
civilization with him, teaching the people the first 
elements of Christianity, till shut out for five long 
years from the civilized world, in the very heart of 
Africa, on the shore of Lake Bangweolo, David Liv- 
ingstone said : “Build me a little house in which to 
die. I am going home. Heaven’s blessing come 
down on everyone who will help to save this Dark 
Continent.” 

This same Supreme love dwelling in the heart of 
Bishop Taylor, constrained him with an army of 
workers to take the Dark Continent in their strong 
arms and lift it up to God. 

We linger in this dispensation a moment for medi- 
tation. These are the times of Holy Spirit. He is the 
greatest need of the church today. How much he is 
needed, more than talents, knowledge, facilities and 
resources. How much He is needed in the hearts of 
the people. That we may all have an intense, inces- 
sant and eternal impulse to finish at all hazards the 
world’s redemption. Needed in our hearts, homes 


30 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

and churches to quench all the suppressed fire of sin 
within us, to consume all our neutrality, lethargy and 
unholy criticisms and send us out like flames of fire 
through the land. 

O, Thou Loving Spirit, come and dwell more 
perfectly in us that we may stretch out our 
right hands so all may see, that in their palms no 
sword is clasped, that we may reach forth our left 
hands that they may see the fingers that are quick 
only to cover a brother’s fault or save a sinner’s 
soul. 

Give us the white robes of perfect love that all 
may see our bosoms of pearl and stainless hearts. 
“With malice towards none and charity for all,” we 
bow with profound reverence at thy tribunal. We 
acknowledge the sway of thy scepter, we swear eter- 
nal allegiance to thy standards and marshalled under 
thy banner we clasp hands with Christians of every 
name, around the cross of Christ to work and fight, 
to give and suffer, to preach and pray till all the dis- 
cordant tongues of earth are translated into the 
sweet language of the angels anthem. 

“Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and 
good will to men.” 


SCRIPTURE LESSON. 

THE PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

Wait for the promise of the Father, which, said he, 
ye have heard of me 

For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall 
be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days 
hence. Acts 1-4, 5. 

A new heart will I also give you and a new Spirit 
will I put within you, and I will put my Spirit within 
you . Ezek. 26, 26-27. 

I indeed baptize you with water, but he shall bap- 
tize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Matt. 3,11. 

It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour 
out my Spirit upon all flesh. Joel 2, 28. 


31 












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CHAPTER II. 

THE PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

Jesus Christ puts special emphasis on this prom- 
ise of the Spirit as if it was the only promise of the 
Father. This is really the center of all the promises. 
The promises for the conviction of sinners — the par- 
don of sin — peace with God — purity of heart — 
growth in grace — perfect love — all center in this 
promise of the Holy Spirit. 

It is very necessary in discussing this subject that 
we should know whether the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit is clearly promised in the scriptures. If it is 
not promised clearly and definitely in the word of 
God that we Christian people shall receive the bap- 
tism with the Holy Spirit, then it is presumption in 
us to seek it or to think of obtaining it; and if any 
man claims that he has received this baptism of the 
Spirit, it is simply another evidence of the perversity 
and sinfulness of his own heart, for it is utterly im- 
possible to have a special experience that is not in- 
cluded definitely in any of the promises that God has 


33 


34 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


given us. It is the wildest fanaticism to suppose that 
we can get blessings that are not mentioned or of- 
fered in this precious word. 

If the baptism with the Holy Spirit is promised, 
then its obligation rests upon us, with all the weight 
of God’s command, and we will not be excusable if 
we allow this promise of God to be unfulfilled in us, 
any more than a sinner will be excused in neglecting 
the promise of pardon. The reason many sinners 
are not born of God, is because many Christians are 
not baptized with the Holy Spirit. 

In the 26th Chapter of Ezekiel, the 26th and 27th 
verses, you will observe that the Lord made this 
promise to his ancient people : 

“A new heart also will I give you and a new Spirit 
will I put within you, and I will put My Spirit within 
you and cause you to walk in My statutes and ye 
shall keep My judgments and do them.” 

Now here is a definite promise that we shall 
have a new spirit, that we shall be regenerated; 
and an additional promise that God will put His 
Spirit within us — the filling and indwelling of the 
Holy Spirit. 

In the second chapter of Joel, the 28th and 29th 
verses, God makes this statement again, saying: 

“It shall come to pass afterwards that I will 


Promise of Holy Spirit. 


35 


pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons 
and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men 
shall dream dreams, your young men shall see 
visions; and also upon the servants and upon the 
handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit.” 

Eight hundred years before the coming of Christ 
this was specifically and positively declared, that 
God would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, serv- 
ants and handmaidens, old men and young men and 
women should receive this wonderful baptism. 

Now, I do not believe that the Lord has to say 
a thing twice to make it true or forcible, but here 
we have the second promise of the same thing, 
renewed 800 years before Christ. We have this 
definite promise that after the sufferings of Christ, 
there should come upon all flesh the baptism with 
the Holy Spirit, and we are told how the believers 
would act, and what they should do. 

1. This is always a Divine Baptism. John 
could baptize with water, but not with the Holy 
Spirit. The church can baptize with hvater, but all 
the saints on earth or in heaven cannot baptize with 
the Holy Spirit. John says: "I indeed baptize 
you with water, but He shall baptize you with the 
Holy Spirit and fire.” 

Now, there are two things prominent in John’s 


36 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

ministry. The first was the blood of the Lamb 
that taketh away the sins of the world — “Behold 
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the 
world,” and the other was the baptism of the Holy 
Spirit, “He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit 
and fire.” “He that sent me to baptize with 
water, the same said unto me, upon Whom thou 
shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on 
Him, the same is He which baptizeth with the 
Holy Ghost.” The blood of the Lamb was shed 
for wicked men and women; the baptism of the 
Holy Spirit is a free gift to all willing and obedient 
disciples, and these two things are the great needs 
of the world, the blood of the Lamb to take away 
the sin and condemnation of the world; to cleanse 
the temple from all uncleanness. The baptism of 
the Spirit upon the believers to enable them to 
triumph against all their enemies, to make them 
superior to all their surroundings, to give them 
victory in all their difficulties. These two things 
were specifically promised by John. 

Not only did John refresh the minds of the 
people, but Jesus Himself also stated the matter 
definitely — that He would baptize with the Holy 
Spirit . He said: “I will send the promise of the 
Father upon you.” 


Promise of Holy Spirit. 


37 


“John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall 
be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days 
hence.” 

Did you ever notice that the only thing Jesus 
did not do when He was on earth was to baptize 
people with the Holy Spirit? He forgave his 
people their sins, He fed the people when hungry 
in the wilderness, He saved his disciples from 
perils of the sea, He gave them power over their 
enemies, He gave them power over evil spirits, to 
cast out devils and raise the dead. Yet He did 
not baptize them with the Holy Spirit, although it 
was prophesied He should. 

Why didn’t Jesus baptize with the Holy Spirit 
while on earth ? It may be a little hard to explain 
why He did not, but I think this is the reason: 
He didn’t give out anything to other people until 
He had first tried and tested it himself. He re- 
ceived the baptism Himself, but He had to demon- 
strate that the power of the Spirit was sufficient 
for all services and all sufferings and all emergen- 
cies. And so after He had received the baptism of 
the Holy Spirit, after He was tried and tested, after 
He had by the Eternal Spirit offered himself a 
sacrifice for sin, after He had shed His blood, after 
He had been raised by the Spirit from the dead, 


38 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

after He had manifested Himself to His disciples, 
He ascended to the Father and obtained for others 
that same baptism which He had for Himself. 
Thus Peter says: “This Jesus hath God raised 
up whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, being 
exalted by the right hand of God and having ob- 
tained of the Father the promise of the Holy 
Spirit, He (Jesus Christ) hath shed forth this 
which ye now see and hear.” 

2. The promise of the Baptism is a definite and 
specific blessing , “I will give you another Com- 
forter.” 

The disciples may have had a great many ques- 
tions, and may have wondered whether the prom- 
ise was to be fufilled. Yet there was no room to 
doubt after Jesus had made this statement so defi- 
nitely and explicitly that if He went away He would 
send the promise of the Father. They knew He 
had gone away, they knew He was true, that He 
would keep His iword, and that they did not have 
anything else to do but obey and pray, waiting for 
the promise to be realized. 

What a model this is for the church of all ages 1 
This church and every church in Christendom has 
the definite and distinct promise of the Father 
renewed by John and repeated by the Lord Jesus 


Promise of Holy Spirit. 39 

Himself. Every church has the promise that it shall 
receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The early 
church tarried and prayed and examined themselves 
until the Holy Spirit came. This is clearly the 
hunger that should be in our own hearts. 

3. The Promise is Universal and Perpetual. Some 
people suppose that it was to be a special gift to 
the apostles, or, at most, to the disciples, but Joel 
settles this point in his prophecy for he says: “It 
shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out 
My Spirit upon all desk; and your sons and your 
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream 
dreams, your young men shall see visions ; and also 
upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those 
days will I pour out My Spirit. ,> 

When Pentecost came, some of the people said: 
“These men are drunk. Just look. These men are 
drunk.” And Peter, replying to the charge said: 
“This is not drunkenness. This is THAT. This 
is not drunkenness, this is not excitement, this is 
not fanaticism, this is not imagination. But “this is 
THAT. THIS IS THAT which was spoken of by 
the prophet.” “It shall come to pass in the last 
days, saith the Lord, that I will pour out my spirit 
upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters 
shall prophesy, and your young men shall see vis- 


40 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


ions and your old men shall dream dreams ; and on 
my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour 
out in thqse days of my Spirit and they shall 
prophesy.” This is that. Not something else, not 
a 'blessing, not a growth, but this is the promise that 
was made to the old Jews 1400 years before, that 
the Holy Spirit should be poured out on all flesh, 
and this is that. There is no mistake, no doubt about 
it. This is that which was prophesied by the proph- 
ets in the ancient days. Then he goes on and says 
“The promise is unto you” — you devout men gath- 
ered from all nations of the earth. It is for you. 
“More than that he says the promise is to your 
children.” Then “More yet, the promise is to all 
them that are afar off.” That is the Gentiles. We 
Kvere gentiles afar off, without hope and without 
God in the world. Then he adds, “even as many as 
the Lord our God shall call.” This is that which 
was prophesied to be poured out upon all flesh, “yes, 
upon them that are afar off, even as many as the 
Lord our God shall call.” And this seals the promise 
for every believer in Jesus Christ, for every child 
of God throughout all time. 

4. The Promise of the Father was for an Abid- 
ing Spirit. What a comfort that must have been to 
the disciples. I imagine they were troubled and 


Promise of Holy Spirit. 


4i 


sorrowful about Jesus going away. He had said to 
them, “If I go away, I will* send you another Com- 
forter,” and I imagine they said to Him, “How long 
will He stay with us, Lord? You have been with 
us three years and now You are going away, and 
we can see You no more. You talk about sending an- 
other Comforter ; how long is He going to stay with 
us ?” Jesus told them, “He shall abide with you 
forever.” Don’t talk about His ascension. The 
blessed Son of God has sent us a Comforter to abide 
with us forever. This Holy Spirit is never going 
away. His power and His grace are never to be 
withdrawn, He is never to be separated from the 
sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. 

How much better this is than even to have Jesus 
in the flesh. Jesus in the flesh could have been at 
only one place at a time. Jesus in the flesh would 
have been compelled to be absent from us much of 
the time, but Jesus in the Spirit can abide in us 
forever. Receive the Holy Spirit. He is better than 
a blessing. Beloved, when you seek a blessing you 
get a wonderful experience of grace and it enthuses 
you, but somehow or other it loses its freshness; 
but when you receive Him, Who comes to stay, He 
gives you a new experience of saving grace and 
saving power every day of your life. 


42 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


i. The Promise of the Father is the Great Gift 
of God to the church. The Comforter is the ascen- 
sion, the coronation gift of the Father and the Son 
to believers. When kings were crowned they gave 
their friends something to remember their corona- 
tion day. King Edward gave presents to a thou- 
sand friends that they might remember his corona- 
tion day. So this is the crowning work of the Son 
of God on earth. It is the evidence that the Son 
of God has been glorified. It is the token that His 
sufferings and His work have been accepted, that 
the Eternal God has been pleased with the work 
that Jesus did on earth in redeeming man. Jesus 
completed the work of man’s redemption when He 
was crucified and raised from the dead. His work 
on earth was done. But in order to be qualified 
and empowered and in order to know that Jesus is 
glorified ; His disciples needed to have something 
further; they needed to know where Jesus was, just 
as they knew the other facts. The question came 
to them: Where was Jesus? They had seen Him 
crucified, they had seen Him resurrected, they had 
seen Him when gravitation turned the other way 
and he ascended into Heaven. Now, where was 
He? He had said to them, “I go to My Father 
and your Father, and I go to My God and your God, 


Promise of Holy Spirit. 


43 


and if I go away I will send you another Com- 
forter.” So that the only way they could know that 
Jesus was glorified was by the coming of the Holy 
Spirit. 

Suppose I illustrate it in this way. A friend of 
mine is going to India, and says : “When I get into 
India I will write you a letter and send you some 
specimens of the country.” So I go down to the 
wharf and see him on board ship. Amid tears and 
farewells I watch the ship until it gets far off on the 
sea and I go back home and think about him. I 
wonder if he will be all right and if any accidents 
will happen to him. When the time comes for him 
to land, I wonder if he has landed and I get un- 
easy about him. I am concerned. I remember that 
he promised when he got there that he would send 
me a letter. At last here comes a mail carrier with 
a letter. I look at the address. It is his hand- 
writing; and while I am looking at it the express 
messenger brings me a package. I open it and 
there are the specimens my friend has sent me 
from India, and the first thing I say is, “He is there, 
he is there, he is safe, he is safe.” 

And so these disciples who had seen Jesus cruci- 
fied, they had seen him raised from the dead, they 
had seen the empty tomb, they had seen him on the 


44 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


way to Emmaus, they had no doubt of his resurrec- 
tion, they had seen him go away. Where had he 
gone? Well, they looked at him as he went up into 
the sky until a cloud received him up out of their 
sight. He had gone away. And as they were gaz- 
ing up into the sky with longing, loving hearts, an 
angel appearing to them, told them that he should 
come again, and they went to the place of prayer 
and consecration. They remembered that he had 
said, “If I go away, I will send you another Com- 
forter.” They knew that Jesus was true, and they 
had nothing to do but wait. Perhaps some of them 
had doubts. I do not know but that Peter was a 
little uneasy in the upper chamber. He may have 
wanted to go out and talk about Jesus. We know 
he did some things that Jesus had to undo. Mary 
may have been somewhat despondent about that 
time. She had kept many things in her heart, but 
now He was gone. She may have had some melan- 
choly thoughts, but they all stayed there and prayed 
and examined themselves and looked into one an- 
other’s hearts, and came closer and closer together 
until they were all with one accord in that upper 
room, and when they had prayed there came a 
sound — not from the east — not from the west — it 
came from Heaven. There came a sound from 


Promise of Holy Spirit. 


45 


Heaven. They knew the sign. They were over- 
powered and overwhelmed. They bowed beneath 
the Spirit’s power. Every fibre of their being was 
thrilled with the presence and the power of the 
Holy Spirit ; their bodies were filled with the Divine 
Spirit, their faces glowed with rapture, their eyes 
kindled with celestial light, they ventured to look at 
each other and Peter saw tongues of fire on James’ 
head, and James saw tongues of fire on John’s head, 
and John saw tongues of fire on Mary’s head, and 
round and round tongues of fire fell upon each one 
in the room, and then lifting up their voices they 
began to praise God, and while some were mocking 
Peter says, “This is that which was prophesied by 
the prophet Joel.” This is that. And they knew 
that Christ had reached the throne. They knew 
that he had been glorified. They knew that he 
was at the right hand of God, the Father Al- 
mighty, thinking of them and sending them the 
gifts that he had obtained by his own obedience and 
sacrifice. They knew that Jesus was glorified be- 
cause he had sent them the Holy Spirit. And every 
man that receives the Holy Spirit knows that Jesus 
is glorified — exalted at the right hand of God — just 
as well as if he were to see him there with his own 


eves. 


46 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

This is the coronal gift, the ascension gift to con- 
vince the church that God has glorified Jesus Christ. 

This baptism of the Holy Spirit was the charm 
and power of the early church. They were not run- 
ning after many things as Christian people seem to be 
running today. The old prophets wondered when 
the Spirit of Christ led them to prophesy concerning 
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should 
follow. The angels were also curious about this 
thing. Peter said they desired to look into it. They 
fwondered how God could come to sinful man, take 
away his sins, wash his soul, and then Himself come 
in and dwell in this temple. It is the marvel of the 
ages. The early church greatly prized this gift of 
the Holy Spirit, so that immediately after the bap- 
tism of the disciples when the people said, '‘What 
must we do?” Peter said, “Repent and be bap- 
tized in the name of the Lord Jesus for the re- 
mission of your sins and ye shall receive the gift of 
the Holy Spirit 

When there was a revival in Samaria and word 
came that a great many had been converted, the 
apostles gathered together and sent Peter and John 
down to Samaria not to take up a collection, not to 
count the number of converts, or to build a fine 
church, or to see that the record was all right, not 


Promise of Holy Spirit. 


47 


to superintend or to give some authority to the work 
that had been done by some irresponsible evangel- 
ists, but that these young converts might receive 
the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and they prayed 
with them until the Spirit did come upon those who 
had been converted under the preaching of Philip. 

Then you remember that when Paul made his 
journey over into Ephesus the first question (the 
only question we have any record of was), “Have 
you received the Holy Spirit since you believed ?” 
Pie didn’t go down to exalt brains, or eloquence, or 
creeds, or philosophies, or theologies, or robes, or 
rituals, or ornaments, but to minister to them and to 
see that they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

Believe me, believe me, this is the need of the 
church today over all the land — the baptism with 
the Holy Spirit. Do not run of? on one line or an- 
other, but see that this great baptism that God has 
given through the merits of Jesus Christ is experi- 
enced in your own soul. Are you hungry? 


























. 


. 
















































‘ 

















SCRIPTURE LESSON. 

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HOW TO RECEIVE HIM. 

Receive ye the Holy Spirit. St. John 20:22. 

Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye be- 
lieved? Acts 19:2. 

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. 
Acts 2 : 4 . 

Who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we. 
Acts 10:47. 

They laid their hands on them and they received 
the Holy Spirit. Acts 8:17. 

I believe in the Holy Ghost. Apostles Creed. 
That the blessing of Abraham might come on the 
Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might re- 
ceive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Gal. 
3 * 14 . 


49 







* 

2 a 

















































































































































. 















CHAPTER III. 

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HOW TO RECEIVE HIM. 

The great need of the Jews was to receive Jesus 
Christ the Savior, but they did not know their day 
of visitation, rejected him and are scattered to the 
ends of the earth unto this day. The great need 
of the disciples was to receive the Comforter. Jesus 
did not request nor entreat them, but commanded 
them to wait till he came. When there was a re- 
vival in Samaria the Apostles at Jerusalem sent Pe- 
ter and John that the young converts might receive, 
the Comforter , and when Paul reached Ephesus he 
asked this question, — “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit 
when ye believed ?” 

The Universal Church for eight hundred years 
has been repeating the sentence in the Apostles 
Creed, — “I believe in the Holy Ghost,” and yet there 
are a great many people in the church, that do not 
know whether there is a Holy Spirit for them or 
not; and if they know that there is a Holy Spirit 


51 


52 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


they do not know how to receive him, or what his 
work is when he comes. 

There are several things concerning the Holy 
Spirit that I want you especially to remember. 

I. The Holy Spirit is a Divine person who has a 
will, a mind and desires; not that he is limited in 
person as we are, as we think of a person, but that 
he is a divine person, having a divine will and a 
divine character and a divine mind. If the Holy 
Spirit is not a person then the Trinity is an impossi- 
bility. 

The Holy Spirit is the personal successor of the 
Son of God. In His official ministry on earth Christ 
taught that men were sinners. The Spirit makes 
this truth a conscious fact. Christ taught that men 
were spiritually dead. The Spirit makes men spirit- 
ually alive from the dead. Without the work of 
the Spirit the teaching and work of Christ would 
avail nothing. 

There is no contention as to the relative value 
of these persons. The incoming and abiding of the 
Holy Spirit is a more conclusive proof of the Diety 
of Jesus Christ than his own life, miracles, resurrec- 
tion or ascension. 

The anointing with the Holy Spirit on Jesus of 
Nazareth constituted him the Christ, the Anointed 


How to Receive The Holy Spirit. 


53 


One. Our baptism with the Holy Spirit, makes us 
Christly men and women, reproducing the Christ- 
life, thus showing Jesus to the world. 

The reason of failure in much devoted work that 
is being done is because, while we recognize Jesus 
Christ as our personal Lord in Heaven, we do not 
recognize the Holy Spirit as our personal Lord on 
earth. 

We must not expect the one person to do what 
he has expressly told us the other person will do. 

Our relation to the Holy Spirit is that of one 
person to another. He is nearer to us than any 
other person — divine or human. Nearer to us than 
either the Father or the Son — for it is through Him 
that we know Them. 

The relation between Him and us is one of per- 
fect wisdom, strength and compassion on his side, 
and of ignorance, weakness and need on our side ; 
authority and independence on his side, obedience 
and dependence on our side. 

When we pray let us pray to the Holy Spirit for 
Himself as well as to the Father or the Son, to give 
us the Spirit. We pray God, the Father, to sanctify 
us, let us pray to the Holy Spirit to do it Himself, 
for that is His work. 

Let the soul-winner be conscious that he has a 


54 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

Divine Helper in himself to work in the hearts of 
the unsaved for that is His work. Let the mother 
be conscious when she speaks to the children that 
she has the presence of the Divine Friend and 
Helper to carry her words to the hearts of her 
loved ones. So the Sunday school teacher, the 
evangelist and the minister may have this personal 
Divine Friend to work through them effectually. 
Thus honoring him in living; He will give us the 
needed grace — in service He will give us the needed 
strength, in prayer He will make the needed inter- 
cession, in affliction Fie Iwill impart the needed com- 
fort, so that everywhere and all the time time we 
will triumph. 

But if we neglect or dishonor, grieve or offend 
this Divine Personal Friend, Guide and Helper, is 
it strange that disastrous circumstances should come 
to ourselves, the church and the world ? 

We have an impression that the Holy Spirit is an 
influence or an emanation that comes from God, 
just as a kind of atmosphere that comes to us from 
people when we associate with them. A great many 
people pray or seek for the Holy Spirit and when he 
is poured out upon them and they realize that the 
answer has come, they say they have received a 
great blessing. They put the Comforter in the 


How to Receive The Holy Spirit. 55 

neuter gender and grieve the Spirit because they 
do not appreciate that he is the living God, the very 
person that dwelt in Jesus, that controlled his will, 
his mind, his life and that He has a special work 
to do in us and with us, a special will to dwell in 
our wills, a special mind to superintend our minds, 
and a special life to impart to our life, that no other 
being in heaven or earth can give us. 

1. The same terms are used in regard to the 
Holy Spirit that are used in regard to the Father 
or the Son; and the Bible is very careful on this 
point not to leave us in the dark. The Bible at- 
tributes to him all the characteristics that it does to 
the Father or the Son. All the Divine attributes are 
ascribed to Him, — omnipotence, omniscience, omni- 
presence and eternity of being. 

2. The Bible says that the Spirit strives with 
men, and then that He ceases to strive. The Spirit 
can be pleased or He can be displeased. 

Jesus says that the Spirit will manifest himself, 
that He, when He is come, will do certain things in 
the world and certain things in the church. He 
will comfort the believers. He would teach them 
and guide them. Worldly people are never to re- 
ceive Him or know Him. The regenerated people 
are to be conscious of His presence, — He is to con- 


56 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

vince the wicked of sin, to reveal righteousness to 
them and to give them clear judgment about sin. 
Jesus says that “He” — the Holy Ghost — “will testify 
of me,” and that “He will glorify me” and that “He 
will show you things to come and He will abide 
with you forever.” 

3. Another proof of his personality is that belief 
in Him is the last test of orthodoxy. In the dispensa- 
tion of the Father the test of allegiance was the 
worship of One God. In the dispensation of the 
Son the test was the reception of Jesus Christ as 
the Atoning Savior, the Divine Mediator between 
God and man. “Ye believe in God — believe also in 
me.” In the third dispensation the last test is to 
receive the Comforter as the Divine Commissioner 
and dispenser of Mercy and Power. Thus we have 
God existing as the Father, revealing himself to all 
men in his Son, and communicating Himself by the 
Holy Spirit to all believers. Joseph Cook has given 
the most perfect definition of the Trinity we have 
ever examined, — 1st, “The Father, Son and Holy 
Ghost are one and only one God, 2nd — each has a 
peculiarity incommunicable to the others, 3rd — 
Neither is God without the others, 4th — Each with 
the others is God.” 

4. The most solemn and awful proof of His per- 


How to Receive The Holy Spirit, 


57 


sonality is that the sin against Him can never be for- 
given, and this fact is not asserted of the Father or 
the Son, and no such prominence could be given to 
an influence, attribute or an impersonality. 

II. The Holy Spirit is a Gift. The next thing I 
want you to remember is, the Holy Spirit is an ab- 
solutely free gift to the believers. Jesus Christ is 
God’s great gift to the world, — “God so loved the 
world that he gave his only begotten son.” He is a 
gift. The Holy Spirit is the great gift of the Father 
and the Son to the believers that they may know the 
Lord and reveal Him to the world. We talk about 
pardon being a gift, and peace with God being a 
gift. We come to the Lord to get pardon and go 
away carrying our gift. We take peace when we 
are in trouble, we take rest when in burdens, and 
deliverance when we are in bondage — we take all 
these things as gifts but we do not appreciate the 
fact that the author of all these gifts is a Gift. Now, 
while peace and pardon and forgiveness and cleans- 
ing and purity and sanctification and holiness and 
all these things are gifts to the church of God, the 
author of them is also a Gift. And it seems to me 
that we would be more in line with the Lord Jesus 
Christ if we would seek for the Author rather than 
for His gifts, — if we should seek, not only for a 


58 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

part, but for the whole of the gift. You know that 
when you make an offer of a gift to anybody and 
he is not willing to take all of it, it grieves you, be- 
cause he is not willing to receive the hospitality from 
the fullness of your heart. Now when the Lord has 
purchased for us at such a sacrifice the gift of the 
Holy Spirit, it seems to me that we shall be more 
in harmony with His will if we as believers in the 
Lord Jesus Christ should receive the Gift, and then 
let the manifestations of the Gift be according to 
His own will. 

III. The Gift of the Holy Spirit is not always 
manifested to our senses . We must distinguish 
between the Holy Spirit and His manifestation. 
There is a vast difference between having Him and 
having His manifestations. So many times we are 
seeking in this world for what are called manifesta- 
tions of the Spirit. We want a sense of the Holy 
Spirit. We are not willing to say by faith, we re- 
ceive the Holy Spirit unless we have a sense of His 
presence — unless His Spirit works upon our senses 
and gives us from the standpoint of the flesh a 
manifestation of His presence. 

Now, the Spirit of God is lodged in your spirit, so 
that in your new spirit which has been given you 
from the Father, the Holy Spirit is to dwell when 


How to Receive The Holy Spirit. 


59 


He is come into you. His manifestations are to be 
according to His will. We are so anxious to have 
the manifestations that we neglect to receive the 
Author of them, and want Him to give them to 
us without having submitted to Him. One man 
comes seeking peace. Well, peace is simply one of 
the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Another 
comes seeking joy. Well, joy is simply the Holy 
Spirit manifesting Himself through our sensibilities. 
We may have the Spirit and not have the manifesta- 
tions of peace or of joy, because He may want to 
give us some other manifestation. 

An acquaintance of mine in Chicago sought for 
this baptism of the Spirit one whole night in prayer. 
In the morning she was no nearer the reception of 
the Spirit than the evening before. She was in 
great trouble until it was suggested to her that what 
she was seeking was not the Holy Spirit, but the 
joy of the Spirit. She wanted the manifestation of 
joy, she wanted to be happy. When she saw her 
mistake she said, “I see my blunder. I have not 
been seeking Him at all. I have been seeking some 
manifestation of Him. I receive Him now by faith. 
I just receive Him whether I ever have a moment’s 
happiness or not. I will not question about that. I 
will just take Him,” and instantly she became con- 


6o 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


scious, — not of joy, — she didn’t seem to have any 
joy — not of peace, she didn’t seem to have any 
peace, it was not a sense of power or glory, but 
she had the consciousness that the Holy Spir.it had 
come into her body and mind and was dwelling in 
her. It was a sense of the presence of Jesus. There 
was no cloven tongue of fire, there was no special 
manifestation at that time, but when she came to 
the place where she needed peace, then the Spirit 
that dwelt in her manifested His presence by peace ; 
and when she came to the place where she needed 
joy, the Spirit imparted to her consciousness the joy 
of the Lord ; and when she came to the place where 
she needed patience, the Holy Spirit imparted 
patience to her. And so she found all these things 
as the fruit of the Spirit by having received Him. 

If you are seeking for the manifestations of the 
Spirit, you may have some manifestations ; you may 
have some increase of peace, or some increase of 
pleasure or happiness, but you will not receive Him 
unless you abandon all your desires for manifesta- 
tions to Him and let Him manifest Himself just 
as He pleases. He is not given to us as a possession 
of which we have the control, but He comes as the 
Master to control us and use us, and all the mani- 
festations that follow the incoming of the Spirit, 


How to Receive The PIoly Spirit. 


6i 


are at His disposal. The manifestation of the Spirit 
of God is according to His own will and wherever 
He sees it is profitable He will manifest Himself. 
I have not shouted for a good while. I used to 
shout very frequently in religious meetings in my 
early experience, until I saw that the disposition to 
shout was not always an evidence of the presence 
of the Spirit. I saw that other things moved on 
men’s sensibilities and made them feel like shouting 
just as the Spirit had moved on my sensibilites and 
made me feel like shouting, and I saw that the 
shouting might come from the Holy Spirit or some 
other person. I have no desire about it. If He 
wants me to sink down in peace, or if He wants me 
to be lifted up into joy, I am willing. If He wants 
me to withdraw and be quiet and rest, I will with- 
draw and rest a while. Whatever He wants me 
to do, that I must be willing to do. So if we are to 
receive the Holy Spirit, we must remember that 
He is a spiritual person and not purchased by serv- 
ice nor by money, but is obtained as a free gift from 
God to be obeyed. 

IV. Put away Human Standards. Now, let us 
remember another thing in seeking this baptism of 
the Spirit that we ought to put away human stand- 
ards. It impresses itself upon me, that we ought 


62 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


not to be looking around and saying, “I want to 
have an experience like somebody else.” If any two 
of you were exactly alike you would have reason 
to think that the Holy Spirit would work just alike, 
but as it is now, no two are alike. The Holy Spirit 
must be free to operate upon your mind according 
to His own pleasure, and you must not under any 
circumstances sit down and say, “I am going to 
have an experience just like this man’s.” A great 
many Christians are doing that. They are not 
satisfied with what the Lord gives them. They want 
to have something more brilliant, or joyful, a little 
more suited to their mind. Every moment you do 
that, you depreciate or discount what the Lord does 
for you, and you must not discredit the Lord’s 
work. You must be willing to allow the Lord to 
operate on your body, on your mind, on your Spirit 
just as he will. Then be as glad of that, as though 
you were Moses or David or Paul or an angel of 
God. It is better for a man to be wrapped up in 
the Holy Spirit, to be just what he is and let God 
do with him as he desires, than it is for him to get 
another’s experience, even if it be that of an 
apostle. What God wants you to be and do is the 
best for you. Daniel’s experience will not fit you. 
It would be like Saul’s armour on David — you would 


How to Receive The Holy Spirit. 63 

have to throw it away after all and take what the 
Lord prepared for you to use. 

V. Right Motive . We must seek for the baptism 
with the Holy Spirit with right motives. We must 
have the same motive which Jesus says the Spirit 
has in coming, — “When He is come He will testify 
of me” and “when He is come He will glorify me.” 
Now, I am afraid that sometimes people seek the 
Holy Spirit to glorify themselves. That is to say, 
either to give themselves some rest, where they have 
not rest, or some freedom, where they have not 
freedom, or ease, or celebrity, or honor or position. 
Now the Spirit will never minister to your pride. 
If you are seeking the Spirit to have renown or 
reputation, you will not be likely to receive Him. 
Very often we read of the Wesleys, Whitefield, 
Finney, Olin, Hamline, Cookman, Moody and other 
men, who have been wonderfully honored of the 
Lord, and then after we read their lives, we begin 
to pray for the baptism with the Holy Spirit. 

There comes to us that itching desire ; we would 
like to have the honor or the position, or do the 
work, or be like these people of whom we have read, 
— so instead of praying for the Holy Spirit, we are 
praying for celebrity, for renown, or position and 
the praise of men. 


64 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

Many of the disciples upon whom the baptism of 
the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost never made any 
record of their lives. There is nothing known in 
the history of the world, what became of the men 
or what became of the women. What they did after 
they were baptized with the Spirit is unknown to this 
day. It was not theirs to seek. If God wants you 
to go in and out, up or down, to live or die, that 
is what you are willing to do if you give yourself to 
Him. If we seek the Holy Spirit for gratification, 
so we won’t have so much trouble with ourselves, 
we shall not get Him for that purpose. A great 
many people want their children to be religious so 
they can have a good time and when the children 
commit faults, they will throw it up to them and 
say, “I thought you were religious, I thought you 
signed a card the other day, or joined the church, 
and here you are doing this.” They want them to 
be religious so that they would not have any trouble 
with them. A great many people seek the Holy 
Spirit so that they will not have so much trouble 
with themselves, so that they won’t have to be care- 
ful for themselves, nor watch so much nor pray so 
much, nor repent so much, so that they can abandon 
themselves. You will not get the Holy Spirit for 


How to Receive The Holy Spirit. 65 

that purpose, for He does not come to do that kind 
of work. 

Jesus Christ tells us why He sends the Comforter, 
— “He shall glorify me, He shall take the things of 
mine and show them to you, He shall convince the 
world of sin.” When you want to make the world 
better, to lift up Jesus Christ, then you will be very 
likely to receive the Spirit; but if you are thinking 
of yourself, trying to perpetuate yourself, seeking 
for position or fame, you will hardly receive the 
Holy Spirit. You must seek Him with pure un- 
selfish motives. 

VI. How to Receive Him. 

1. Obedience. Suppose you want to receive him 
so that he will abide in you, the real condition, the 
main condition, for the reception of the Holy Spirit 
is “obedience.” Jesus said to his disciples: “If ye 
love me keep my commandments, and I will pray 
the Father and He will send you another Com- 
forter.” Now, the reception of the Comforter de- 
pended upon their keeping the commandments. 
Peter says in Acts 5 '.32 that “God gives the Holy 
Spirit to them that obey him.” We must seek first 
to obey God just as we are. A good many people 
are mistaken about this. They want the Holy 
Spirit to help them to obey God — to make them 


66 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


loyal to God. Now, the Lord will never send the 
Spirit to dwell in you to make you loyal to Him. 
You must become loyal to Him as his child. You 
must determine of yourself that you will be loyal 
to God anyhow. Loyalty is always the prerequisite 
of power. Power never creates loyalty in any 
government. No man ever gets power in any gov- 
ernment in order to be made loyal to that govern- 
ment. Every pastor commits an awful blunder 
when he gives a man a position in the church in 
order to make him loyal to the church. If a man 
has a few talents and uses them wrong he need not 
pray for the Spirit, for when a man uses his talents 
in a wrong way he is simply declaring to God what 
he would do if he had more talents. 

Now, in order to be in a position to receive the 
Holy Spirit, we must be willing to be loyal to 
God in little things. There are no trivial things in 
this life — things that do not amount to anything. A 
spider’s web is a little thing, but it is said that once 
in Japan the telegraph wires would not operate. 
They sent men out along the line to see what was 
the matter. They found that the line was not broken 
anywhere. It was not connected with anything else, 
it was not disturbed, it was not disconnected in any 
way, and they could not discover why the messages 


How to Receive The Holy Spirit. 67 

would not go. Finally in passing through some 
thick forests the men discovered that little spiders 
had been weaving webs from the wires to the 
ground, and these webs took off the current so that 
no messages could be sent between the stations. 

In the Christian life there are little spider webs 
— we call them little things, trivial things — no mat- 
ter what they are, it makes no difference, these are 
the very things that take away the current and 
cause us to fail in doing the will of God and in re- 
ceiving the Holy Spirit as we ought to receive Him. 

Now, if we are obedient, it is our privilege to re- 
ceive the Holy Spirit. If we are not obedient then 
we must begin to obey God. If there is anything 
in your life, your mental life, your spiritual life, 
your physical life — if there is anything in which 
you are doing wrong, you must turn away from it 
and do wrong no more. If you are cherishing any- 
thing in your heart you know not to be right, you 
must cease to cherish it. We need not expect the 
Holy Spirit to come and abide with us if there is 
in us any love or affiliation for any of that gang of 
thirteen outlaws which Jesus denounced as coming 
from the heart. The Holy Spirit will not come into 
our souls if they are fetid or chilled with the atmos- 
phere of worldliness or befouled with passion of any 


68 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


kind. We must absolutely separate ourselves from 
these things. If we are not doing the will of God 
we must begin to obey. I do not know what God 
will say to any man. If you have not been an obedi- 
ent child of God, perhaps He would say to you, 
“There is an unforgiven enemy that you must go 
and forgive,” or perhaps he would say “There is 
an unsettled difficulty, you must go and settle it.” 
There is some neglected duty which you must do. 
“If in anything you are otherwise minded, the Spirit 
will show it unto you.” You begin to do what God 
tells you to do. The Holy Spirit maketh interces- 
sion for you. If you follow His promptings He 
will show you and it will not be long till you will 
come into the right place. He may show you a 
Bible covered with dust that you have not been 
reading. He will show you a closet that has not 
been visited for a long time. It may be a family 
altar all broken down and you may have to put it 
up. He may show you some unpaid vow you have 
made and you will have to pay that vow. You can- 
not rush into the baptism of the Holy Spirit without 
preparation; you cannot receive the Holy Spirit 
without searching yourself and without knowing 
whether you are trying to walk with God or not, 
and trying to do the very best you can, so that, if 


How to Receive The Holy Spirit. 69 

you want to receive the Holy Spirit, you must begin 
to do whatever He tells you to do. Wherever he tells 
you to go you must go, and suffer whatever he tells 
you to suffer. 

By the price of your own soul, by the price of 
your eternal reward, by the price of a glorious 
eternity into which you may enter, I beg of you, 
begin to follow the Holy Spirit. 

2. Receive Him by fctith. Did you ever no- 
tice how Paul puts this in Galatians 3:4? “This 
only would I learn of you. Received ye the Spirit 
by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith ?” 
— How did you receive the Spirit, by the works of 
law or by the hearing of faith? — Then he goes on 
down, as you will find by reading this chapter until 
the 13th and 14th verses and says we do not receive 
by the works of the law — that Christ took our place 
in the law and fulfilled all the law for us. “Christ 
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being 
a curse for us.” Why did He do that? “That we 
might receive the promise of the Spirit through 
faith.” 

Now, if you want to receive the Holy Spirit, you 
will have to receive him through faith. “Oh,” says 
someone, “I will not believe I receive the Holy Spirit 
until I know I have Him.” Are you going to deal 


70 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


with God in that way? You can deal with any com- 
mon liar on that ground. You can deal with any 
rascal on the face of the earth on that ground and 
have no faith in him at all. God requires you to 
have faith in His word. When God says a thing is 
so, you are to believe His word, and trust Him, and 
take the promise, and have the gift through the 
promise by faith in the promise. If you want to 
receive the Holy Spirit, fulfill the conditions He 
requires. Submit yourself to the Lord, and then 
fulfilling the conditions, ask Him definitely for the 
Spirit, and believing that God is as good as His 
word, as true as His word, begin to reckon that He 
gives you the Spirit, and go on trusting Him that 
He does give you the Spirit, and that He will keep 
you filled with the Spirit, and according to your 
faith it shall be unto you. “What things soever 
ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them 
and ye shall have them.” “If ye then, being evil, 
know how to give good gifts unto your children; 
how much more shall your heavenly Father give 
the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.” This does 
not apply to the Jews alone, for Peter says, “The 
promise is to you and to your children, even to as 
many as the Lord our God shall call.” You do not 
need to go away and fail to receive this baptism. 


How to Receive The Holy Spirit. 71 

You can receive it where you are, without waiting 
another moment of time, if you are willing to do the 
will of God. 

A woman came from California to Richmond, 
Indiana, seeking for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. 
She came all the way across the plains, that she 
might receive the Baptism of the Spirit, and then 
found after she had come that long distance that she 
had to receive the Spirit by faith, had to receive the 
Spirit by just turning around and accepting God’s 
word. And she said, “I have come from California 
to Indiana with my back to the Lord, when all I had 
to do at the very start was to turn my face to the 
Lord and receive His word.” 

This is all you have to do. Just turn around and 
open your heart to the Lord and say, “Lord, thou 
askest me to give myself to Thee. Thou knowest 
my inmost thought and purpose. Thou knowest 
every atom of my being. I now yield to thee. Now 
give me the Holy Spirit. Lord I believe.” 

VII. What am I to believe ? 

1. There is such a blessing to be had, as the 
baptism with the Holy Spirit. Christ received it at 
the beginning of His ministry on the Jordan : the dis- 
ciples received it at Pentecost. The believers in 
Samaria who were rejoicing in Christ afterwards re- 


72 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

ceived the baptism with the Holy Spirit. The be- 
lievers at Ephesus received this baptism after they 
believed. Paul said, — “After that ye believed, you 
were sealed with the Holy Spirit.” There is such 
an experience. This I firmly believe. 

2. The Baptism is for me. Peter says, — “The 
promise is unto you and to your children, to all that 
are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall 
call.” God has called me. There is such an expe- 
rience. It is for me. 

3. I do not have it. I either had it and lost it 
or I never had it. I do not have it now. How do I 
know that I do not have it now? — The Bible is not 
interesting, prayer is dull and heavy, Jesus seems 
away off. I have no power over sin. No saving 
power over others. My temper and habits over- 
come me. I confess it. There is such a baptism. 
It is for me. I have not got it. 

4. I want this baptism, I am hungry for it: I 
feel my deficiency ; I want the supply of the Spirit ; 
if there is anybody in the world wants it, I am that 
one. 

5. I will make any sacrifice to obtain this bap- 
tism. If there is anything wrong in me, if I am 
doing anything wrong, I’ll give it up. “I’ll go where 
you want me to go, over mountain or plain or sea, 


How to Receive The Holy Spirit. 73 

I’ll say what you want me to say, and I’ll be what 
you want me to be.” 

6. I give myself to Christ that he may cleanse 
and fill me. It is Christ who baptizes. “He hath 
shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.” The ris- 
en Lord whose hands were pierced for me is the one 
to baptize me with the Holy Spirit. Oh blessed 
privilege, that Jesus will give to me the very same 
Holy Spirit that dwelt in Him, that carried him 
through His mission, to carry me through my life 
work, and for this purpose I consecrate all to Him 
to be cleansed and kept. He can not cleanse my 
heart unless it is all consecrated to him, he must 
have all. Mr. Moody says, “God does not want 
gold or silver vessels, but He does want clean ves- 
sels.” 

If a contagious disease has been in a house you 
would not enter till every room was cleaned. If 
every room was fumigated but one little one, you 
would not go into it. We went into a parsonage 
once where there had been Scarlet Fever and every 
room but one was fumigated, (the committee sup- 
posed my predecessor had fumigated that one, but 
he had not) and four children had the Scarlet Fever, 
and one was taken away because we slept in a house 
with one unfumigated room. 


74 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


Don’t expect the Holy Spirit to abide in an un- 
clean temple. 

7. And now fixing my eyes on Jesus and not 
on self, I take the promise of the Spirit by faith. 
“Jesus bore the curse of the law that I might re- 
ceive the promise of the Spirit by faith,” and I now 
take the promise of the Spirit. 

If my brother gives me a check on the bank I take 
it and claim the money and I say it is mine, and I 
realize on it. My elder Brother has given me the 
Promise of the Holy Spirit. I take His promise 
and claim it as my own, just as I received my Sa- 
vior by faith to forgive me and give me a new heart, 
so I take the Comforter to abide in me forever. 


SCRIPTURE LESSON. 

THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

Howbeit, when he the Spirit of truth is come, he 
will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak 
of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear that shall 
he speak and he will show you things to come, he 
shall glorify me for he shall receive of mine and 
shall show it unto you. John 16, 13-14. 

For God hath shined in our hearts, to give the 
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the 
face of Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. 4, 6. 


75 


CHAPTER IV. 

THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

The third person in the Trinity has been sent into 
this world just as definitely as the second person was 
sent into the world ; and he has a mission just as 
separate and distinct and important as the mission 
of the Son of God; he has a mission to the church 
as well as to the world. Not only is he sent to con- 
vince the world of sin and of righteousness and of 
judgment, but he is sent to minister to the church. 

The place given to the Holy Spirit in the heart 
and life of the most advanced Christian is far below 
that which he occupies in the word of God and 
which he should have in every believer’s heart. To 
believe in Christ and not to believe in the Holy Spirit 
is to have a historical faith or a beginning, child- 
hood faith, but not a saving, purifying, keeping 
faith. A church without the Holy Spirit is as great 
a delusion as a church without a Christ. There is 
as much reason why we should behave ourselves 
and walk softly before the Holy Spirit everywhere 


77 


78 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

and all the time, as there ever was to obey Jesus 
Christ in the flesh. We must walk humbly with 
God the Spirit, as we would with God the Son. To 
obey the words of the Scripture and not obey the 
Spirit, is to become a formalist and finally a Phar- 
isee. To grieve the Holy Spirit is as great a viola- 
tion of God’s word as to steal or lie or swear. To 
try to deceive the Holy Spirit is as perilous as the 
sin for which Ananias and Sapphira fell down dead 
at the feet of Peter. To betray the Holy Spirit is a 
sin equal to the sin of Judas who betrayed the Son 
of God with many kisses. To reject the Holy Spirit, 
as worldly Christians are observed to do, is a crime 
equal to the Jews who rejected the Son of God in 
the flesh. Truth without the Spirit never saves, 
but always condemns. “Theology without the unc- 
tion of the Holy Spirit is not only a dead letter, but 
a deadly poison.” 

So strong is my faith in the ministry of the Spirit, 
that I really have no hope at all in the salvation of 
the world save by his ministry. Because there is a 
Holy Spirit who has been sent, and because of his 
vitalizing, enlightening and enduing power. I have 
great hope for the redemption of the world. The 
church does not understand the mission of the Spirit. 
The day of Pentecost was simply a pattern day. I 


Ministry of The Holy Spirit. 


79 


believe that the ministry of the Spirit did not begin 
in glory to end in darkness, but it began feebly on 
the day of Pentecost and was intended to increase 
in power, as the membership increases in number, 
until this dispensation shall end gloriously in the 
redemption of the whole world. For Jesus said 
that “He, when he is come, will convince the world” 
— not a few, not a little portion, but “when he is 
come he will convince the world of sin, and of right- 
eousness and of judgment.” 

The atmosphere around this globe is one hundred 
and twenty-five miles high and it is necessary to the 
life of the animals, it is necessary for the growth of 
the plants ; but it would be of no value to the plants 
nor to the animals if there was no sunlight radiating 
it giving it life and power. No animal could live 
and no plant could grow without the sun. 

The redemption of Jesus Christ covers the whole 
world. More than one hundred and twenty-five miles 
high as a sea of salvation, but unless this redemption 
is applied by the Holy Spirit this world will swing 
on in moral darkness forever. 

Let us look at the ministry of the Holy Spirit as 
taught by the Son of God. 

i. He shall tell us who Jesus is. Jesus says: 
“When He is come He will testify of me.” 

The disciples knew all the particulars about the 


8o 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


life of Jesus. They were conversant with His spe- 
cial power, His life, His grace and His long suffer- 
ing. They saw the manifestations of His power in 
the miracles which He performed. And yet the very 
night that these words were spoken, these very dis- 
ciples that knew all about Jesus Christ, forsook him 
and fled, and Peter went off denying that he knew 
anything about this Son of God. 

But when the Spirit came at Pentecost and testi- 
fied of Jesus, then these disciples began to testify 
with tremendous power before all the people. 

The sufferings of the Son of God are ineffectual 
for the redemption of the world, until the Holy 
Spirit bears testimony to Jesus and reveals Him to 
our own hearts, and then we through the Spirit 
bear witness to the things of Christ. The atonement 
of Jesus Christ was real, the redemption was real 
years before I knew anything about it, before I re- 
ceived it. I had heard of the sufferings of the Son 
of God and of the Blood of Jesus Christ a thousand 
times before I received the Lord, but when in an- 
swer to my mother’s prayers the Holy Spirit con- 
vinced me of sin and then brought the things of 
Jesus to me, and I saw my sins and I saw Christ 
suffering for my sins, I saw His atonement and His 
redemption, it gave me joy and peace and glory so 
that I have never forgotten that day. 


Ministry of The Holy Spirit. 


8i 


The redemption of Jesus Christ takes in all the 
world, and yet the world seems to be perfectly in- 
different and careless concerning the atonement 
that the Son of God has made. The reason of that 
is we have forgotten the ministry of the Spirit. We 
have forgotten that he is to come upon us and 
through us bear witness for the glorified Son of God, 
at the right hand of power. 

2. The Holy Spirit is the official successor of 
Jesus Christ. I have no sympathy in diminishing the 
ministry of the Holy Spirit. I believe that God has 
sent Him forth to execute and administer on the 
estate of Jesus Christ. I believe Jesus purchased 
the world for God and the Holy Spirit is sent to 
administer on this estate until the world is redeemed. 
The Holy Spirit has not come as a distinct person 
to abide in the preachers in a body, not in the church 
as a body but in the body of each preacher and each 
member. The church needs to wake up to this fact 
that God has sent the third person of the Trinity to 
be an abiding guest in every member of the church. 

If the Lord in person should be with you in the 
home ; if He should walk arm and arm with you to 
your business and in your store, you would have a 
very gentle and mild spirit. You would walk gently 
and very humbly with the Lord. If you were in 


82 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


his presence you would live without trembling, 
doubting or distrust ; you would feel that you were 
perfectly safe ; but the Lord has sent the Holy Spirit 
to be the official successor to himself and he says 
distinctly to us : “It is better for you that I go away 
and the Spirit come to you.” Yet how few seem to 
be conscious and to realize that we have the official 
successor of the Son of God with us, not only with 
us, but abiding in us always. Do we see it as we 
ought to see it ? Are we moved by it as we ought 
to be moved by it? If we were we would leave be- 
hind us our woes, our discouragements, our bitter 
complaints, and rejoicing one with the other we 
would walk in the enduement of power and many a 
worldly man would be under conviction and believe 
on the Son of God. 

3. The Holy Spirit is the Revealer of Jesus 
Christ. He shall take the things of mine and reveal 
them unto you . Without the Spirit of God coming 
upon us, we will not be able to receive the things 
of Jesus. The only interpreter of the Holy Scrip- 
tures is the Holy Spirit, and unless you have Him 
to be your interpreter you will not be able to enter 
into the word of God. You do not understand the 
spirit of the Scripture because you have Hodge, or 
Clarke, or Whedon, or any human authority. It is 


Ministry of The Holy Spirit. 83 

a good thing to have the works of man, but they 
are not the key that opens the scriptures to your 
heart. The Spirit of God is the only key and if you 
have a wrong key it is about as bad as though 
you have no key at all. In fact, it is sometimes 
worse to have a wrong key because you putter 
around, wasting much time trying to do something 
that you cannot do. You will not be able to unlock 
the Word with a wrong key. The Holy Spirit is 
the one who explains the Word of God. Without 
him you will be like the blind Sodomites who stum- 
bled around trying to find the door of the house of 
Lot and could not find it. We need the enlighten- 
ment of the Spirit to understand the Word ; we need 
to have this radiance of God in us, in order to see 
the things that are around us as they really are. 

Suppose this was an art room. It is not ; but draw 
on your imagination and suppose it was an art room, 
filled with the finest paintings in the world. Sup- 
pose over here was the painting of “The Storm,” 
over here of “Job’s Comforters,” over there “The 
Last Hours of Mozart,” or “The Spring,” or “The 
Resurrection.” If there was no light you might 
just as well not have them; they would be of no 
value to you. 

In order to see the things of Jesus Christ there 


84 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


must be heavenly light thrown upon you and upon 
them. “He shall take of the things of mine and 
show them unto you.” They are about you, but you 
cannot see them. The Holy Spirit would not have 
been sent if you could see them yourself. He illum- 
inates the things of Christ just as the sun on a fair 
day illuminates this earth. The sun does not make 
the mountain, the rock or sea. It simply brings 
them out. They are just as deep or broad or high 
in the midnight hour as they are in the noon time. 
One midnight hour on the mountain top I looked 
upon the valley beneath but could see nothing save 
a gray landscape lined with a few silver streams, 
but in the early morning I was enraptured with a 
variety of fields with herds and flocks, with birds 
and fowl of every wing, with homes and stores and 
villages and the spires of a great city. What a 
wonderful thing the sun did to this valley. It illum- 
inated the valley, irradiating the trees, shedding 
light upon the trembling dew, on every twig and 
shrub, until the bushes in the early morning seemed 
like the presence of God. The Holy Spirit is to do 
that way with the things of Jesus to our hearts and 
minds. He takes the providences of Jesus Christ 
and reveals them unto us and explains them so that 
we can see them and know them. 


Ministry of The Holy Spirit. 85 


4. The Holy Spirit makes the things of Jesus 
fresh and living realities. He shall take the things 
of Jesus and make them fresh and real. We need 
to have the sufferings of the Son of God and His 
victories made a fresh and present reality to every- 
one of us. With the Spirit one day is as a thousand 
years and a thousand years as one day. We hear 
men talk about the life and the sufferings of Christ 
and all that, as of something that happened two 
thousand years ago. It is the history of Christ cen- 
turies ago and we get the impression that it belongs 
to the distant past. The Holy Spirit makes the re- 
demption of Jesus Christ a present, a fresh, a di- 
vine reality, just as much so as if it had occurred 
yesterday, or today, for a thousand years with Him 
are as one day. 

5. He shall glorify Jesus. <( He shall glorify 
me!’ There are two ways in which the Son of God 
is glorified. The Father glorifies him in Heaven 
and the Spirit glorifies him on earth. The Holy 
Spirit is not sent to glorify Jesus in heaven. He is 
sent to glorify Jesus on the earth, when he is come. 
“He shall glorify me.” The Son glorified the Father 
on the earth. He said, “I have glorified Thee on the 
earth.” When about to leave, Philip said, “Show 
us the Father and it sufificeth us.” Jesus said : “Have 


86 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not 
known me, Philip. He that hath seen me hath seen 
the Father.” 

To glorify is to manifest, to bring out the hidden 
virtues and worth and merits of a person — to reveal 
them so that they will be known where they are un- 
known. The Father glorified the Son when He re- 
ceived Him back into Heaven and gave Him the 
glory that He had with Him before the world was. 
The Father glorified the Son when He put all things 
into his possession, when he gave the authority 
over all things in heaven and earth. The Spirit 
takes the things of this glorified Son of God in 
heaven and brings them to us on earth and reveals 
them to us and in us that others may see them. 
When the Spirit comes to us and is enthroned in our 
hearts as Jesus is enthroned in heaven, then the 
things of the enthroned Jesus are imparted to us. 
He takes the peace that Jesus has and the purity 
that Jesus has, His love, His humility, His right- 
eousness, His wisdom, His sanctification and His re- 
demption and imparts them to us. Why? That 
Jesus may be glorified on the earth, through us and 
in us and by us. He shall glorify me on the earth. 

When the Holy Spirit reveals the character of 
Jesus, we begin to see how much crookedness there 


Ministry of The Holy Spirit. 87 

is in ourselves, the failures, and shortcomings in 
our living and our need of transformation. For 
three years the disciples had the presence of Jesus, 
but did not have his likeness or characteristics, he 
was humble, they were proud. He was unselfish, 
and they were selfish. He believed God, they were 
frequently unbelieving. He was peaceable, they had 
strife and contention with one another. They 
wanted his presence, but cherished their own dis- 
positions and characters, but the Comforter came 
to them at Pentecost, and imparted to them the 
characteristics of Jesus, and the Scribes and High 
Priests saw that fact at once. 

What then are the characteristics of Jesus that 
we need and may have them imparted to us? 

1. The first of these is Purity. Jesus is the only 
one of unstained heart and of pure lips and life; 
“Which of you accuses me of sin?” Of all the 
streams of life He was the pure, transparent, pellucid 
one, as a spring from the hills of heaven in which 
there was nothing turbid or foul. Oh, blessed work 
of the Holy Spirit, producing in us this characteris- 
tic of Jesus. Purifying our hearts by faith. This 
is the first great work of the Comforter when he 
comes in to abide. 

2. The next feature is that of love. Jesus intro- 


88 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


duced love into the world. We had known some- 
thing about love, yet it was narrow, limited and de- 
flected, but He straightened out the lines, took up 
the boundaries and made it universal. So that His 
life was a perfect love life. And now the Comforter 
is to produce and carry out in us that same love-life 
that Jesus may be glorified in us, that we may love 
intensely, constantly, not in word or tongue, but in 
deed and reality. 

3. Another feature of Jesus is forgiveness. This 
is something like love, but is distinct and separate. 
Forgiveness was hardly known in the ancient world. 
The highest degree of forgiveness to which Plato 
thought it possible to reach was to blot from his 
mind the very conception and image of his enemy, 
and that was not forgiveness at all, but only a secret 
and proud revenge. The old Roman said that “No 
one has ever done me so much good, and no one 
has ever done me so much evil that I have not re- 
paid him with interest.” But Jesus brought forgive- 
ness out of the shadows and made it one of the chief 
graces of his kingdom. The Jews insulted him, when 
they had no right to do so. They wronged him and 
did not stop there. They injured him, and did not 
repair the injury. They sinned against him, and 
did not repent. They were cursing and hating, tor- 


Ministry of The Holy Spirit. 89 

meriting and abusing, thrusting and pushing at him 
and killing him, and rejoicing that now he would 
soon die and be damned. What was Jesus doing — 
railing back at them? No, no. Turning his face 
from them and becoming utterly indifferent to their 
welfare? Hear him say, “Father, forgive them, for 
they know not what they do.” And now you see 
what real, thorough forgiveness is, and this is what 
the Comforter comes to produce in us, so that for- 
giveness in us towards others would be like God’s 
forgiveness towards us. 

4. Another feature of Jesus is humility . This is 
a very gracious element of character. It is not self 
humiliation, which is often ostentatious and full of 
vulgar vanity and self seeking. It is not diffidence, 
which is a mere distrust of our own powers. It is 
not timidity, which is a fear lest our effort should 
be censured. It is not modesty, which is an unwill- 
ingness to put ourselves forward. But humility 
consists of a willingness to be rated low, to waive 
our rights and take a lower place than is our due, 
and do all we can whether praised or blamed. This 
is a rich valley, the descent into it is steep and 
rugged, but oh it is beautiful, fertile and fruitful, 
when once we get there. There is where Jesus 
always lived. He might have said to his disciples, 


9 o 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


“Learn of me, because I am the most advanced 
thinker of the race. I have performed more mir- 
acles than any other man. I have shown my super- 
natural power in a thousand ways,” but the reason 
he gave was that he was “Meek and Lowly in 
Heart.” He never listened for the applause. He 
never had a mean, miserable itching way down in 
his heart for the hero’s praise. This supreme per- 
son of history was a friend of publicans and sin- 
ners. Having all power in heaven and earth, He 
served his disciples as a servant. “He humbled 
himself and became obedient unto death, even the 
death of the cross.” He virtually said: “Let it 
cost me what it will, I will do anything. I’ll die 
that God’s will may be done.” and thus His chief 
virtue was humility, and humility is well nigh the 
whole substance of Christianity. 

The Comforter is come to give us that same 
humility, this is our great need. There seems to be 
so much pride, selfishness and exaggeration abroad 
that it looks as if we were seeking the praise of 
men, and not of God. 

There seems so much patronage in our smiles and 
condescension in our approvals ; so much exaggera- 
tion for our own glorification, in our recitals of vic- 
tories, and so much scrambling for leadership in the 


Ministry of The Holy Spirit. 91 

aggressive movements of the church, that it looks 
as if we had lost the grace of humility. 

The Holy Spirit is sent to impart unto us the Christ 
life, so that the life we now live will be Christ liv- 
ing in us, the hope of glory. “He shall glorify me” 

For this purpose God hath shined in our hearts to 
make known through us the knowledge of the glory 
of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and our whole 
purpose is that the life of Jesus shall be made mani- 
fest not in heaven after a while, but here and now 
in our mortal flesh. Thus we are living epistles 
read and known of all men. Living revelations, 
movable samples of the divine nature. This is what 
Paul means in II Cor. 3, 18: “We all with open face 
reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord.” (That 
is, the character of the Lord, for the glory of all 
beings is their character) “reflecting the character 
of the Lord are changed into the same image from 
glory to glory, from character to character, even 
as by the Lord the Spirit.” 

The work of the Spirit is not merely to save 
Christians in heaven when they die, but to reveal 
Christ to the world in the Christians while they are 
living, so that men shall see Him and come to Him, 
know Him and be saved by Him when they see Him 
in Christians. 


92 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


Thus Paul enforces this truth in I Cor. I, 19: 
“Know ye not that your body is the temple of the 
Holy Spirit which is in you which ye have of God, 
and ye are not your own, for ye are bought Iwitli a 
pfrice. Therefore, glorify in your body and in 
your spirit which are God’s.” Practice the presence 
of Jesus, so that if any man sees you he will not 
see a sanctified man merely, or a holiness man, but 
he will see Christ in you and thus Christ will be 
glorified in you. 

When the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
was exhorting the brethren to brace up the feeble 
knees, to strengthen the weak hands, to make level 
paths for their feet that the lame be not turned 
away, he says: “Follow peace with all men” prac- 
tice peace as much as lieth in you, live peaceably 
with all men “and holiness without which no man 
shall see the Lord.” 

Follow holiness, practice holiness. Now, what 
are the practical elements of holiness, what are the 
cardinal virtues? Are they not love, joy, peace, 
long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness 
and self-control? Practice these and men will see 
the Lord in you here and now. If you do not, no 
man shall see the Lord and Christianity would die 
out in one generation. Get a pure heart and you 


Ministry of The Holy Spirit. 


93 


shall see the Lord. Practice holiness, not to get 
to heaven, to see the Lord, but that other people 
may see the Lord in you, and Jesus will be glori- 
fied in you. 

The spiritual life with it’s gifts and fruit is the 
great life. The physical life is the shadow. The 
soul life is the reality. The spiritual world is the 
great world. All the past generations of saints are 
in the spiritual world. That is the great world. 
The physical world is the temporal ; it is the begin- 
ning, then that which is spiritual. Let us press up 
out of the earthy into the spiritual, that we may 
see and realize the greatness of our privilege and 
destiny. 

A blind mole may make a long path under the 
earth with his spades and may say there is no world 
but his. “I do not know any world but this. I do 
not know any other life but this. I have dug and 
dug and this is the only world I have seen and be- 
lieve in. There is no other world.” But the eagle 
on the mountain top does not pull out his feathers or 
pluck out his eyes. He does not ask for the spades 
of the mole that he may dig down there in the 
ground. He says, “Stay under the ground and 
dig away if you will; I like this mountain crag; I 
like the air that comes from these mountain tops ; I 


94 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


like the sun that shines in the blue sky. You may 
dig down there if you want to, but I prefer this 
life; I prefer this air.” And he stays there in his 
great world on the mountain top. 

Materialists may say, “this physical life is all I 
want It suits me ; I do not believe in the spiritual 
world. I do not believe in the things that I cannot 
handle and see and touch.” But when the Sun of 
Righteousness shines in a believer’s soul, when he 
gets breezes fresh from the Paradise of God, when 
he gets into communion with saints and the spirits 
of just men made perfect, he says, “How delighted 
I am with this atmosphere. This is the great world, 
and I am content to live here and stay here for- 
ever.” 

It seems to me that physical life is a kind of seed 
life. It is a kind of bulb life. It is carried on under 
the ground. And the great spiritual life which God 
has given us is in the life above the soil. 

Suppose a bulb of a tuberose in your garden in 
the spring of the year should say : “Here I am, this 
is a comfortable place ; it is warm here. I am 
afraid to go up into the air, I am afraid the frosts 
will bite me, the cold will chill me. I am afraid 
that someone will trample upon me, someone will 
bruise me and crush me if I come up. I am afraid 


Ministry of The Holy Spirit. 95 

the sun will wither my blades of beauty ; I will just 
hide my life, I will cover myself up and hide all 
my beauty here.” What would the gardener say? 
He would say, “See that bulb there; I thought it 
was going to be a good bulb ; I thought I was going 
to have a nice flower from it, and a beautiful sweet 
aroma. Take the bulb up and throw it away; it is 
dying, it is dead.” 

Here we are, beginning a wonderful, and an eter- 
nal existence; here we are planted in this soil a 
little while, and the eternal God knows the great 
beauty we can have, and the great glory that will 
come to us if we will push up. But if we say, “I 
am afraid to be spiritual. I am afraid to give up 
all to my gardener. I am afraid that the little 
troubles, the little sorrows, and the difficulties that 
will come upon me will injure me, if I yield myself 
unto my God entirely. I am afraid the frost will 
bite me or the hot winds will curl me up. I will 
cover myself up ; I will hide here.” God will say, “I 
thought that was a good bulb, I thought I was go- 
ing to have a sweet flower; cast the bulb out; it 
has brought me no flower; it has brought me no 
beauty; it has brought me no sweetness; it has 
brought me no fruit. Cast it out; it has been a 
worthless plant.” 


g 6 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

Push up, according to God's plan. Let us rise 
into the spiritual ; let us take hold personally of the 
blessed Holy Spirit. Let us rise above these tem- 
poral things, and get the dews from heaven and the 
sunlight of God on leaf and flower. And it will be 
only a little while until the Lord God will look down 
from heaven and say to his gardener: “This is a 
beautiful plant ; it has a beautiful flower ; this plant 
has bloomed long enough in that little world ; dig it 
up with an angel’s spade, and transplant it into my 
heavenly kingdom by the river of Life that flows 
by the throne of God.” And the angel will trans- 
plant us into the heavenly world where we will see 
the glory of God, and enjoy the Lord and his saints 
forever, amen. 


SCRIPTURE LESSON. 

THE ANOINTING WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He 
hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor ; 
He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to 
preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering 
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are 
bruised. Luke 4-18. 

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the 
Holy Ghost and with power; who went about do- 
ing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the 
devil ; for God was with him. Acts 10-38. 

Now, he which establisheth us with you in Christ, 
and hath anointed us, is God. II Cor 1, 21. 

But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye 
know all things. I John 2-20. 

Thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of glad- 
ness above thy fellows. Hebrews 1-9. 

Thou anointest my head with oil ; my cup runneth 
over. Psalms 23-5. 


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CHAPTER V. 


THE ANOINTING WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

In trying to show how God establishes the Chris- 
tian, Paul uses the borrowed, words, “the Anointing, 
the Sealing, and the Earnest.” The Spirits Anoint- 
ing, Sealing, and the Earnest of the Spirit, were all 
to give us assurance. The custom was to confirm 
prophets, priests and kings by anointing, while let- 
ters, articles and documents were sealed for se- 
curity, and contracts and bargains were secured by 
the Earnest. We call it “the option.” 

The anointing is the witness or evidence of the 
incoming and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. By this 
we know that He is come. 

In the Old Testament the anointing was the of- 
ficial inauguration into three of the highest offices in 
the Hebrew nation. The prophets, priests and 
kings received the anointing. These three offices 
were to be combined in one great personality, called 
the Messiah, who was yet to come. Jesus of Naza- 
reth appropriated these prophesies unto himself, 

LOFC, 99 


IOO 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


declaring “The Lord has anointed me to preach the 
gospel to the poor, to heal the broken hearted, to set 
at liberty those that are oppressed.” But the most 
astonishing fact is that this honor of being anointed 
may be shared by all the followers of Jesus of Naza- 
reth. The believers in Jesus through all generations 
have the privilege and honor of becoming kings and 
priests unto God, and all may prophesy; that is, 
speak of the ability which God giveth. 

This is the New Testament preparation for liv- 
ing and serving in the Kingdom. John Fletcher 
used to teach the young preachers for thirty min- 
utes and call them around him and pray, and have 
them pray for the unction of the Holy One. The 
older Methodist Bishops would always say, “Be 
sure you have the anointing when you deliver the 
message.” 

i. This anointing with the Holy Spirit is not 
given to the sinner, but to the Christian. The 
anointing of the oil in the Old Testament was not to 
be on the strangers within the gates, but on the 
true Israelites only. 

It is one thing to be born to rank or position, 
and it is another thing to enter that position or office. 
Life first, possession and occupancy afterwards. It 
!was not the same thing to be born a son of Levi as 


Anointing With The Holy Spirit. ioi 


to be anointed for the office of priest. That which 
qualified him to assume the station for which he was 
born came afterwards. 

So a Christian, though a born priest and king and 
prophet cannot enter upon his life work efficiently 
until he is endowed with power from on high. Of 
course, I do not mean the wearing of robes, mitres 
and crowns, but I mean the actual mediatorship in 
behalf of human sins and wretchedness, that makes 
the Christian a priest ; the actual power and sov- 
ereignty over evil habits and evil spirits that makes 
the Christian a king; the actual acknowledgment 
and testimony of the reception and indwelling of 
Jesus Christ that makes a Christian a prophet. The 
disciples had heard Jesus himself say who He was 
and what He had come to do, but He sealed their 
lips and commanded them not to depart until they 
were baptized and then they should testify. 

2. Now, let us observe what this anointing is. 
It is not a blessing, a gift of the Spirit, or a grace 
or fruit of the Spirit, such as peace, love, joy, gentle- 
ness. The anointing is God, the Holy Spirit. Not 
that the Holy Spirit is the agent in giving this 
anointing, or that some influence or sacrednesss 
comes from the Holy Spirit, but that He Himself 
comes to be the anointing oil on us and in us. Jesus 


102 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


was anointed, not by the Holy Spirit, nor from the 
Holy Spirit, but with the Holy Spirit. The Holy 
Spirit descended on Jesus of Nazareth. He was 
poured out on the disciples at Pentecost and He is 
poured out now on all the believers who yield 
themselves unto God as those alive from the dead. 

3. In the next place, let us notice who it is that 
anoints us. John says, “Ye have an unction from 
the Holy One, and ye all know it” Who is the 
Holy One from whom this anointing comes? It is 
not the Holy Spirit, for he is the anointing. Who 
is it that anoints us with the Holy Spirit? The 
“Holy One” is a special title of Jesus Christ. Six 
times in the New Testament He is called “The Holy 
One,” “The Holy One of God.” God anointed 
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit to make him 
the Christ , and through the Christ the Holy One, 
we receive the anointing that makes us true Chris- 
tians. 

John says again and again, “He shall baptize you 
with the Holy Ghost,” and Jesus claimed this as 
His prerogative, “I will send you another Com- 
forter.” “The Comforter whom I will send unto 
you.” And Peter declares, that Jesus “being by 
the right hand of God exalted and having received 
of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, hath 


Anointing With The Holy Spirit. 103 

shed forth this which yoti now see and hear.” He 
is first anointed and then we are anointed through 
Him. The anointing which God poured on him 
is flowing down unto us, His members, members of 
His body, His flesh and His bones. Of His fullness 
have all we received, and grace for grace . The 
Christ of God is now with us, ready to impart unto 
us the Holy Anointing which will abide forever. 

Why was the baptism with the Holy Spirit called 
the anointing? First, because the anointment was 
sweet and delightful. It was characteristic of Jesus. 
Thy name is as ointment poured forth. There- 
fore, do the virgins love thee. When the Holy Spirit 
lodges in the soul he makes it like a garden of 
spices. It is delightful in the church, in the minis- 
try, in the communion of saints. It sweetens a 
man’s thoughts and actions and makes a man’s own 
conscience a continual feast. Oh, what a delight 
it is to come in from the strife and defilements of 
life and walk in Beulah Land on the delectable 
mountains with God the Spirit ! When Mary broke 
the alabaster box at the house of Bethany, we are 
told that the house was filled with the odor of the 
ointment. When the high priest came from the 
tabernacle bearing on his beard and garments the 
holy oil that was poured on him, the sweet odor 


104 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

filled all the atmosphere where he went. The fra- 
grance of the Rose of Sharon, or the Lily of the 
Valley will be ours and the people will know that 
we have been with Jesus and learned of Him. 

Second, this baptism is called the anointing be- 
cause it strengthens us; Moses, being anointed, en- 
dured as seeing Him who is invisible; Bezaliel was 
anointed, and he was skillful in all carving; he was 
a boss carpenter; Othneil was anointed and went 
out to battle. Paul was anointed and then took 
pleasure in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses 
for Christ’s sake. Kings, when they went out to 
battle, were anointed that they might be strong. 

So when the Spirit of God abides in men, they 
can do things that they could not otherwise do. 
They can deny themselves, overcome the world. 
They are able to want, able to abound, able to bear 
crosses, to endure temptations and to do all things 
through Christ, who is able to make all grace 
abound unto them, because he that is in you is 
greater than he that is in the world. This is the 
royal kingship which we have by the indwelling of 
the Holy Spirit. 

Third, This Baptism of the Holy Spirit is called 
the anointing, because ointment makes the joints 
of the body nimble, and when the Spirit abides in 


Anointing With The Holy Spirit. 105 

us, he makes us ready for every good work, ready 
to serve God in the newness of the spirit and not in 
the oldness of the letter. When the Spirit abides in 
God’s people, they are a willing people and eat the 
fruit of the land. Oil lubricates, makes supple, pre- 
vents friction; no more hot boxes, no more blue 
Mondays, grave yard faces or whining. Oil up ! Oil 
up! And speed on! 

There is a disposition of love in the anointed 
ones that constrains them to become all things to 
all men, that they may save some. When a man is 
without unction, he goes lumpishly and heavily 
about the service of God. He is forced and dragged 
to pray. He avoids conference and testimony. He 
is dull and dead and frozen towards the interests 
of unsaved men. But when a man receives the sweet 
anointing of the Spirit, his heart is enlarged, the 
love of Christ constrains him. He has on the old 
gospel shoes and is ready to go anywhere and do 
anything that God wants him to do. His daily cry 
is, “Here am I. Send me, send me.” 

Fourth, this Baptism with the Spirit is called the 
anointing , because there is a healing , cheerful vir- 
tue and power in it. This baptism hath a cordial 
virtue, healing us from the guilt and stain and sore- 


106 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

ness of sin and sorrow. The Scriptures mention this 
as “the balm of Gilead.” 

In the composition of the anointing oil in the Old 
Testament there was special reference to healing. 
Myrrh has in it the virtue of easing pain and taking 
soreness out of a bruise. Sweet cinnamon is a fiery 
spice, hot and pungent, but the sensations are pleas- 
ant and stimulating; Sweet calamus is sweetness it- 
self; it aids digestion, counteracts acids and takes 
soreness out of the stomach. Cassia is really a good 
food. It contains all the elements for nourishment 
and strengthens every part of the body. While olive 
oil has restoring, nourishing power, it is a great 
thing to lubricate, smooth out the wrinkles and kinks 
and put a shine on. 

If anybody has a sore heart, this will heal it. 
Sometimes pastors and members have chronic sore 
heads. This anointing with the Holy Spirit is the 
divine cure. Sin gives people diseases, fevers, de- 
liriums, consumption, leprosies, tympanies, atrophies. 
This anointing cures these diseases. 

Fifth, the purpose of this anointing was that they 
may minister unto the Lord. This makes us love 
servants of Jesus Christ. So that, “We preach not 
ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, 
your servants, for Jesus’ sake.” 


Anointing With The Holy Spirit. 107 

What a false notion we have of being ministers, 
receiving titles, honors, offices, authorities, dignities, 
which has ruined tens of thousands of ministers, 
the bible teaching “He that is chiefest among you, 
let him be servant of all.” God’s ministers are spirit- 
ual cooks, waiters, laundrymen, housemaids, coach 
drivers, nurses, sheep tenders, herdsmen, farm 
hands, in the Kingdom. 

Sixth, This anointing of the Spirit expresses in 
some way the importation of spiritual knowledge. 
“You know all things.” You have no need that any 
man teach you. The Spirit will impart to us God’s 
view of things and we will see things in the light 
that Christ saw them. He will teach us that true 
honor is to serve God, that true nobility is to be 
born of God. That true riches is the grace of God. 
That true pleasure is the peace of God and the joy 
of the Holy Ghost. That true life is the knowledge 
of God and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. 



SCRIPTURE LESSON. 

THE SEALING WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

Him hath God the Father sealed. St. John 6-27. 

Who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of 
the Spirit in our hearts. II Cor. 1-22. 

In whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed 
with that Holy Spirit of promise. Eph. 1-13. 

Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye 
are sealed unto the day of Redemption. Eph. 4-30. 


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CHAPTER VI. 

THE SEALING WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

When Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan, the 
Father opened the heavens and put his seal on him 
as the Messiah. “Him hath God the Father sealed/’ 
and now he that sealed the Redeemer has come to 
seal the redeemed. 

What is it to be sealed unto the day of redemp- 
tion? Is it to be converted? Is it the same thing 
as regeneration, or is it a later experience of the 
soul after regeneration has taken place? 

I believe that sealing is a later and brighter ex- 
perience of the soul for the following reasons : 

1. The seal is always something different from 
the letter or document upon which it is placed. The 
same hand may place the seal upon the document, 
but it is always a separate and distinguishing act. 

2. To be born of the Spirit is one glorious thing, 
but to be sealed is another thing that is given the 
one that is born. The sealing is always subsequent 
to the thing that is sealed. The new man is to be 


111 


1 12 


Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


sealed; the old man is to be crucified. “After that 
ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of 
promise.” 

3. What is the seal? Is it the fruit of the 
Spirit or one of the gifts of the Spirit? Is it the 
comfort of the Spirit, or the joy of the Spirit? No, 
No. It is not one or all of these things, precious 
as they are. The seal is the Holy Spirit Himself. 
“Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.” 
The Spirit is always Christ’s seal and the Spirit 
abides forever with His sealed ones, comforting, se- 
curing, sustaining them. When a man knows him- 
self to belong to God, believes God, honors God 
with his faith, then Jesus honors that faith with his 
Spirit, giving him a divine confirmation of his salva- 
tion. 

Whosoever believes God, sets his seal that God is 
true, and God will honor the faith of that man and 
seal him with the Holy Spirit. 

I. The purpose of the seal is to confirm and 
make certain the document on which it is placed. It 
is plainer and more easily seen and understood. 
The writing is often in secret on the inside, but 
the seal is on the outside where it is easily seen. 
Officers carry the seal of the state and place it on 
documents to make them secure. The Roman of- 


Sealing With The Holy Spirit. 113 

ficers put the seal of Rome on the tomb of Jesus 
to make it impossible for the disciples to steal the 
body of their Lord. The seal gives authority. It 
is like the star and uniform of the policeman. It 
gives authority to execute the law of the city. So 
when the Holy Spirit seals us, we are under the 
authority of God to carry on the work of salvation. 
That is what the Centurion saw in Jesus, when he 
said, “I am a man under authority and I say to this 
man come and he cometh; to this man, go, and he 
goeth.” “Speak the word only and thy servant 
shall be healed.” So God gives his sealed ones au- 
thority to do his will and He promises protection 
in doing it. No one shall set on you to hurt you. 
They will set on you all right, but they will not hurt 
you, for the sealed ones are immortal till their work 
is done. “Sealed unto the day of redemption.” 

II. The seal carries and imprints the likeness of 
him that seals the document. When the King seals 
a document, the image or picture of the King is left 
upon it, the face answers to the face of the king, 
hand to hand, foot to foot. The King’s picture is 
there, so we are all to carry the King’s image. We 
love what He loves and hates what He hates. After 
Pentecost, the disciples were taken before the council 
and the scribes and priests took knowledge of them 


1 14 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

that they had been with Jesus. Their understand- 
ing was like his understanding. They judged things 
as he judged. The grace of Christ was in them. 
They bore the image of the second Adam. 

III. Sealing means appropriation. Men seal things 
that belong to themselves. Shepherds seal their 
own sheep and not others. Merchants seal their 
own wares. Lumberman put a seal upon their own 
logs so they can always find and claim their own 
property. God comes down to our customs and 
habits and puts his seal on us, then claims us 
wherever we may go. We are marked men and 
women. God claims us as his own property. 

Alfred Cookman used to lift up his hands and 
say, “These hands belong to God. These feet are 
His property. This body belongs to him. My body 
is the temple of the Holy Ghost.” Ezekiel saw a 
man clothed with linen, carrying a writers’ inkhorn 
by his side, and he heard the Lord tell him to go 
through Jerusalem and set a mark on the foreheads 
of all men that sigh and cry for all the abominations 
that were done in the midst thereof, and this mark 
saved them when the destroyers came upon the city. 
God claimed them as his own. 

IV. The seal is a certified declaration that the soul 
is up to the standard. Sometimes in the business 


Sealing With The Holy Spirit. 115 

world men get their measures too large or too small 
and the government sends agents through the coun- 
try to see that the quart measure is no more nor less 
than two pints, the yard measure is no more nor 
less than thirty-six inches. Then when it is the 
correct measure, he will seal it and be pleased. 
Thus the seal of the Spirit is the certificate that 
God is pleased. When Jesus was baptized, the heav- 
ens opened and the Father said, "‘This is my beloved 
son, in whom I am well pleased.” When you are 
all on the altar with weaknesses, infirmities, and all, 
God is well pleased with you. He knoweth our 
frame and remembereth that we are but dust. 

A man tells of a mother with a little boy whose 
frail limbs were covered with steel braces, hobbling 
along the street, and she was saying to him all the 
time “That’s good, that’s fine, why you are doing 
splendidly.” Then the little boy would try to do 
better just to please his mother. Directly he said, 
“Mamma, watch me, I am going to run.” He took 
two or three steps and one foot caught on a brace 
and he would have fallen, but she caught him and 
kissed his cheek and said, “That was fine, that was 
splendid.” Just so our heavenly Father is pleased 
with us, in our hobbling, stumbling efforts to please 


ii 6 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

him. He knoweth our faults, our weaknesses and 
our infirmities. 

V. The Seal is a sacred and holy thing. It is 
never to be broken. When the Jew brought the 
sacrifice to the altar, it was sacrilege to touch it. 
When my friend C. was going from Windsor, 
Canada, to Winnipeg, he had to go through this 
country from Detroit to Minneapolis. At Detroit 
after he put his goods into the hands of the Ameri- 
can agents, he went to one of his trunks to open it, 
but the agent drew his revolver and said, “That 
trunk belongs to the United States, and if you break 
that seal, I’d send you to the penitentiary.” It is 
a sacred thing to be sealed unto the day of redemp- 
tion, the day of deliverance in heaven. He will take 
us through to “that beautiful world on high, where 
saints and angels sing. A world where peace and 
pleasure reign and heavenly praises ring.” 

VI. The Spirit in the sealing works in us four 
things that are worthy of our notice. 

1. The seal is a secret witness to the soul that 
we are the sons of God and enables us to cry, Abba, 
Father. 

2. The seal gives us access to the throne of 
grace with boldness. 


Sealing With The Holy Spirit. 117 

3. The seal assures us that our hearts are clean 
and that Christ is dwelling in us by faith. 

4. The seal is the secret voice of God in us, giv- 
ing us peace of conscience and making us rejoice in 
the Lord always, for the work of the Lord makes 
us “sure.” Having this seal, “The Lord knoweth 
them that are His, and let every one that nameth 
the name of Christ depart from iniquity. 

VII. How do we know that we are sealed of God ? 

1. There is the sweet whispering of God’s Spirit, 
“Thou are mine and I am thine,” and the soul re- 
plies, “Oh, blessed fellowship, divine, Oh joy su- 
premely sweet, companionship with Jesus here 
makes life with bliss replete. In union with the 
purest one, I find my heaven on earth begun.” 

2. You will hnd something like Christ in the 
soul. Every man knows that his own soul by nature 
is selfish, or willful, or worldly, or deceitful. Natur- 
ally, we are depraved, and now when we find love 
and peace and gentleness and mercy in our souls, 
we know that God is in there. 

3. There will be a spirit of constraining confi- 
dence, or boldness in us, and we find ourselves spon- 
taneously going to him, saying, “Abba, Father,” 
especially in seasons of need, trial or suffering. 
Saul, when he was tried, went to the witch of En- 


n8 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

dor. Judas in his trial went to the hangman’s rope, 
so it is today with men who are not sealed. They 
go to the round of pleasure to drown their troubles. 
They go to the fortune teller, the clairvoyant, the 
witches of today. They go to the opiates, to rum, 
to lust, and to death. They go to the center of hell. 
But when a man is sealed, he goes in his trouble to 
God. “As the heart panteth after the water brooks, 
so panteth my soul after thee, Oh, God,” and God 
says, “Like one whom his mother comforteth, so 
will I comfort thee.” 

4. Then there will be seasons of great joy, such 
spiritual raptures of the soul that it will seem like 
heaven upon earth. These heavenly manifestations 
will come sometimes before trials, as it was with 
Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfig- 
uration. Sometimes they will come after the trial 
or conflicts are over, as it was with the disciples 
when they met in the room to pray, and the place 
was shaken and they were filled with all boldness. 
Sometimes in the midst of the trial, as it was with 
Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail when at mid- 
night, after prayer, they were so joyful in the Lord 
that they began to sing a dungeon duet and the 
angels came out of heaven to listen, and the very 


Sealing With The Holy Spirit. 119 

walls danced for joy, and a revival broke out in the 
jailer’s house. 

VIII. Grieve not the Holy Spirit. 

1. You may grieve the Spirit by having a critical 
spirit; finding fault with prayers, singing, testi- 
mony, or preaching, or the altar work. Beware of a 
critical spirit. 

2. You may grieve Him by being cowardly; by 
fearing relatives, or public opinion. Being afraid 
of service, afraid of responsibility and you may 
grieve him away. 

3. You may grieve Him by prejudice and self 
opinion. Many people grieve the Spirit by tradi- 
tions ; by some false doctrines, by prejudice; we 
must be teachable. 

4. You may grieve the Spirit by a spirit of re- 
serve and caution. If Jesus was with us, we would 
be unlimited in our obedience, but we fear the Spirit 
will lead us into fanaticism, and so we hold our- 
selves back for fear we shall slide down into some 
abyss. 

5. Sometimes we grieve the Spirit by stinginess ; 
we fail to comply with his demands. We sing “here 
I give myself to Thee, friends and time and earthly 
store,” and then live selfish lives. Thus He is 
grieved. 


120 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

6 . We grieve the Holy Spirit by neglecting the 
means of grace. Attend all the means of grace. 
Read the Word of God ; study it. Apply it to your- 
self. If it condemns you, apply it still more closely. 


SCRIPTURE LESSON. 

THE EARNEST OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

“Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest 
of the Spirit in our hearts.” II Cor. 1-22. 

“Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise 
which is the earnest of our inheritance until the re- 
demption of the purchased possession unto the praise 
of his glory. Eph. I, 13-14. 

“Now he that hath wrought us for the self same 
thing is God, who also hath given unto us the 
earnest of the Spirit.” II Cor. 5, 5. 


121 



















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CHAPTER VII. 

THE EARNEST OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

Who hath also sealed as and given the earnest of 
the Spirit. 

The word earnest is borrowed from human affairs 
to explain the baptism with the Holy Spirit in our 
souls. 

The word earnest was used by Romans and 
Greeks and even the Phoenicians the founders of 
commerce. 

The earnest was the sample of things sold by the 
seller to the purchaser. It was the assurance that 
the bargain was binding on both parties. 

God, who knows our weakness and our need of 
security in prosperity and adversity, in ignorance 
and in knowledge, has taken all possible means to 
assure us of our personal and eternal salvation. 

The earnest of the Spirit does for the heart that 
which an earnest or option does among men. 

I. The earnest was the security for bargains and 
contracts. When a man bargained for a mine, he 


123 


124 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

was given some of the ore, and that was security 
for the mine. When he purchased a forest of pine, 
he was given a piece of the pine, and that was the 
security for the forest. When a man bargained for 
his farm, he would get a basin of the soil from the 
buyer, and that basin of earth was a testimony that 
the whole farm was his. 

So God comes to us in a kind of a business 
transaction, and says: “If you will believe my Son 
Jesus Christ and yield yourselves unto me as those 
alive from the dead you shall rei'gn with me; you 
shall inherit all things ; you shall sit down with me 
on my throne, and all I have shall be yours.” 

Jesus says, “Father, I will that those whom thou 
hast given me shall be with me where I am, that 
they may behold the glory that I had with thee be- 
fore the world was.” And then he gives us the 
Holy Spirit as the earnest or the pledge that we 
shall have our promised possession. 

The earnest among men secures the farm, the 
whole farm, and the earnest of the Spirit secures our 
heavenly home. “The inheritance among the saints 
in light, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not 
away.” 

II. The earnest is a part of the whole bargain. 
Paul says “that God has sealed us with that Holy 


Earnest of The Holy Spirit. 125 

Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheri- 
tance until the redemption of the purchased posses- 
sion, unto the praise of his glory.” That is, the 
Holy Spirit is the pledge of God, that we shall in- 
herit the glories of the resurrection life. 

The Spirit is come to dwell with us, and in us, 
and He is the pledge that the fullness of heaven is 
ours. 

What that is we know not yet, only we know we 
shall be like Jesus, for we shall see Him as He is, 
and we shall be like Him. We must not be careless 
or indifferent about this deposit which God has 
given us, for it is a part of our heavenly estate. 

III. The earnest is a very little of the whole 
amount. I speak with subdued voice and bated 
breath, for fear you will not understand me when I 
say the earnest is a very little of the whole amount. 
In business affairs we value the earnest or the op- 
tion, not on account of it’s own worth alone, but 
because it is a portion of the whole bargain. Five 
dollars may secure the bargain for a thousand dol- 
lars, and while we have the five dollars, it’s value 
extends to the last dollar of the thousand. It may 
be little in quantity, but it is great in it’s assurance 
and security. 

The Baptism of the Spirit is a great thing, but it 


126 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

is little compared to what is coming to us. If some 
of your dear ones that have entered into their heav- 
enly inheritance should appear, we would fall down 
as dead men and women. 

Sometimes when the work of the Spirit is clouded, 
the joy is small, the comforts are few, we forget 
what it means, and what God is working out in us ; 
and we fail to appreciate this work of grace; but 
the value is above all price, for it is the divine pledge 
of our great bargain in Christ Jesus. 

IV. The earnest implies identity in kind. If the 
earnest is paid in silver, the whole will be paid in 
silver ; if the earnest is gold, the full amount is gold. 
If the earnest in our hearts is the image of Jesus, 
then the fullness of the Comforter is to make us 
like Jesus Christ yonder. In the Old Testament, 
God said to his people, “I am thy exceeding great 
reward ” And John says “As he is so are we in 
this present world. It is enough for the servant to 
be as his Master.” 

And so the same spirit that dwelt in Jesus has 
come to dwell in us, that he may make us more 
and more in the image of our Lord. 

V. The earnest serves the party receiving it 
more than the party giving it. God gives the ear- 
nest of the Spirit not so much for himself as for us. 


Earnest of The Holy Spirit. 127 

He means to give us heaven, and if there was only 
one promise, and no earnest at all, and the promise 
was not bigger than a spider’s web, the promise 
would not fail ; the scripture cannot be broken, but 
we are so easily shaken, and distrustful, that he has 
multiplied his promises, and gives us the earnest of 
the Spirit to assure us of our final redemption. 

VI. The earnest is a lien upon our future service 
and behavior. If the service is not rendered, if the 
consecration is withdrawn, the Spirit may be 
grieved. He has come to stay forever. “I will send 
you another Comforter, who will abide with you 
forever.” But we may grieve the Holy Spirit 
whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption. 
You cannot grieve enemies, but friends, best 
friends, mothers, companions, and drive them away. 
He will never leave you unless you drive him away. 

Some people think that the Holy Spirit has come 
to sit on a hair trigger, ready to leave at a moment’s 
notice, but Jesus says He has come to stay forever. 
Grieve not the Holy Spirit or you may forfeit the 
earnest and lose heaven at last. 

























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SCRIPTURE LESSON. 

THE GUIDANCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way 
which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine 
eye. Psalms 32-8. 

As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are 
the Sons of God. Romans 8, 14. 

He calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth 
them out. St. John, 10, 3. 

The Lord shall guide thee continually. Zach. 
58, 11. 

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. 
Psalms 37, 23. 

Commit thy way unto the Lord ; trust also in him ; 
and he shall bring it to pass. Psalms 37, 5. 

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth is come, He 
will guide you into all truth. St. John 16, 13. 

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God 
that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not 
and it shall be given him. James 1, 5. 


129 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE GUIDANCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

1. We know that Abraham left his kindred and 
country and was guided to a home which he knew 
not. 

2. We know that the Israelites were led for forty 
years in the desert sands and wastes of the wilder- 
ness. 

3. We know that Joshua was led to overcome 
the enemies in Canaan because he looked to the Cap- 
tain of the Lord’s Hosts. 

4. We know the early church was able to solve 
the most difficult problems because they were led by 
the Holy Spirit and yet, there are some people who 
fear this subject because others have gone into fana- 
ticism, but it is just as wrong to neglect and ignore 
an important subject as it is to become fanatical 
about it. It is not sensible to freeze to death because 
other people have been burned to death. It is not 
wise to starve to death because others have eaten too 
much and become winebibbers and gluttons, yet it 


131 


132 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

is wiser to both starve and freeze than it is to refuse 
and ignore the Divine Guidance because some peo- 
ple have been fanatical on the leading of the Spirit. 

This iworld is a dark and trackless wilderness 
and millions have lost the path of life and perished, 
and thousands are now off on tangents because they 
have neglected this infallible guide. It is a great 
advantage in this dense, unknown wilderness not 
only to have a chart but a faithful guide. The Lord 
has given us both a glorious guide book and a glori- 
ous Guide and “he will not miss of endless bliss, 
who takes these helps to guide by.” 

I. We believe it is our privilege to be divinely 
guided because God has given us so many promises 
of guidance. 

“He will keep the feet of his saints.” “The steps 
of a good man are ordered by the Lord.” “Commit 
thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him and he 
shall bring it to pass. “I will instruct thee and teach 
thee in the way which thou shalt go ; I will guide thee 
with mine eye.” 

“And the Lord shall guide thee continually and 
satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones ; 
and thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a 
spring of water, whose waters fail not.” 

“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of Truth is come he 


Guidance of The Holy Spirit. 133 

will guide you into all truth. If any of you lack 
wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to all men 
liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given 
him.” 

These and many more that I cannot mention 
here give us a foundation surer than the everlasting 
mountains that God will guide us all the way from 
earth to heaven. 

1. To whom are the promises given for guid- 
ance and zvho may expect to be divinely guided. 
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord 
and he delighteth in his way.” 

The guidance is not given to us as men, but as 
Christian men and women. The natural man re- 
ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They 
are foolishness unto him. 

Their heart is waxed gross. Their ears are dull 
of hearing and their eyes they have closed, lest at 
any time they see with their eyes and hear with 
their ears and should be converted. 

Conversion opens the eyes and ears and enables 
sinners to receive the Divine Guidance. 

2. In order to be led there must be a complete 
surrender of all the being to the will of God. Every 
sin in the heart is a great hindrance to the divine 
leading — it is like dust in the eyes or wax in the 


134 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

ears which blind the eye and deaden the hearing. 
Nothing is more reasonable than that if a man does 
not surrender and give his heart, ears, his eyes and 
feet and his life to God, he cannot be led of the Spirit, 
for how can a man take the second step if he will not 
take the first. 

In order to be divinely guided. 

3. There must be a commitment of your ways 
unto God. “Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust 
also in Him and He shall bring it to pass.” 

He who employs a physician or an attorney puts 
the case fully into their hands and follows their in- 
structions. If you say you will not do so, you will 
not get their services. The Lord is the lawyer for 
every troubled soul and the sick souks physician, 
and unless it is settled that we will clearly follow 
the Divine Guidance we will never be clear in our 
relation to the Guide and our souls will often be in 
the dark. So many times we ask direction Iwhen 
we merely want approval. We do like the young 
man who was praying for a wife, he said “Lord, 
give me Hannah. She will make me a good wife. If 
it be thy will give me Hannah, but Lord whether it 
is Thy will or not I am going to have her if I can 
get her.” He wanted the Lord’s approval. I have 
prayed for direction many times when I was afraid 


Guidance of The Holy Spirit. 135 

the answer would come the ,wrong way and I have 
not waited long enough to find out what the Lord’s 
will was, but I never sought His will when I was 
as ready to take no as yes, but the Lord answered 
me clearly and promptly. 

4. Another condition of guidance is this, we 
must acknowledge Him as Guide. 

In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall 
direct thy paths. As forgiveness is conditioned on 
confessing sins and receiving Jesus as your personal 
Saviour, as perfect love is conditioned upon our 
receiving the Holy Spirit as the only One who 
sheds abroad the love of God in the heart, so Divine 
Guidance is conditioned upon confessing that you 
have taken the Spirit as your Divine Guide. God 
will not honor people who want His counsel, but 
are ashamed to own that they are divinely directed. 
In all thy ways, big ways and little ways, plain ways, 
mysterious ways, private ways and public ways, 
personal ways, business ways, home ways and social 
ways, “in all thy ways acknowledge Him and He 
shall direct thy paths.” 

5. We must receive guidance by faith. There 
must be a belief that God will make His guidance 
known. If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of 
God who giveth to all men liberally and unbraideth 


136 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

not and it shall be given him, but let him ask in 
faith nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is 
like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and 
tossed. Let not that man think he shall receive any- 
thing of God. When you commit all your difficulties 
unto the Lord you must believe that He is willing 
and able to guide you and you must expect the 
direction needed and look out for the divine guid- 
ance and unless you do this you will not receive any- 
thing of the Lord, but will be like a ship at sea with 
no helm at the mercy of the wind and waves. 

II. Satan offers to guide us in many ways. 

1. The devil wants to guide us by our feelings. 
Many people do things just because they feel like 
it. They will do very unscriptural things because 
they feel like it. I protested to a minister the other 
day about needlessly spending money. Oh, said he, 
I don’t drink and I don’t smoke and I feel like 
spending a little money, a man must do something. 
A man who tests his life by his feelings is like a man 
fwho takes his case out of a wise and righteous court 
and gives it to a crying child to decide for him. A 
young minister was strongly impressed when he 
went to his appointment that he would find a wife 
during that year, and going along the street one day 
he felt sure that a lady ahead of him was to be his 


Guidance of The Holy Spirit. 137 

wife. The Spirit, he thought, led him along after 
her. Imagine his feelings when he saw her face 
and found out that she was a colored woman. Had 
she been white and beautiful and rich he would have 
felt the Lord had led him, and she would have had 
no end of trouble with the fool, but as it was he 
Hew the track, and thought he was mistaken. Never 
go by your feelings. 

When at Fort Wayne I felt like I must go and 
see a strange family. Wife didn’t want to go, but 
I insisted and off we went. When we got there 
they had moved away and the house was empty. 
When I was calling on one of my charges and 
praying with one of my parishioners, it came over 
me very strongly to pray for the husband that he 
might be converted and be a little better husband 
and I laid myself out in good earnest. When pray- 
ers were over imagine my mortification when she 
said with streaming eyes that for five years he had 
been dead. There are hundreds of thousands out of 
Christ today, and to the question, “Why are you not 
a Christian?” they will answer “They don’t feel 
like it.” 

That is the devil’s reason for doing things or 
not doing them. No wonder Wesley said: “Trample 


138 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

under foot that fanatical doctrine that you are not 
to do good unless you feel like it.” 

2. An accidental text of scripture , will be the 
reason of other misleadings of the Devil. I have 
known people in this city who would open their 
Bibles and try to make something out of the first 
verse they saw, not knowing that they were led of 
the Devil in doing this thing! Suppose a Judge 
should open Blackstone and decide in favor or 
against a case by some chance sentence he found 
in the volume! Suppose a physician should give 
a medicine to his patient according to the first pre- 
scription that his eye falls upon in his medical di- 
rectory ! 

The come-outer falls on this text by chance : 
“Come out from among them and be ye separate, 
saith the Lord,” and Satan throws that text into 
both his eyes and out he goes. Another person 
hits upon this verse: “I suffer not a woman to 
teach” and that settles the whole question. Passing 
over all the examples of women helpers and workers 
and leaders he rests upon that one passage. * 

Search the Scriptures. Don’t fool with them, 
is the Divine command. God does not want us to 
go into religious gambling and make a “toss penny” 
of the Bible. 


Guidance of The Holy Spirit. 139 

3. Satan will guide by dreams . Some people 
justify their conduct by dreams which they have 
had and they do some very foolish things. There is 
no Scripture warrant for depending on dreams for 
guidance. They may be from God, they may be 
from the Devil, or they may be from a mince pie. 

4. Signs is another method of his satanic 
majesty. A great many people live by signs. If a 
bird flies into the room, or a looking glass is broken, 
they are sure some one is going to die. If they 
find a pin with the point towards them, they must 
pick it up. If a fork falls from the table and sticks 
in the floor it is a bad sign. They have horse 
shoes tacked up over the door. They ought to be 
tapped for the simples, following such vain supersti- 
tions and yet the Devil fools and deceives a great 
many people by just such nonsense. 

III. Some of the Methods of Divine Guidance: 

1. The Holy Spirit will guide us through our 
sanctified common sense. He has given us reason- 
ing powers and He appeals to our reason from the 
start. “Come,” he says to the sinner, “Let us reason 
together.” “The meek will He guide in judgment.” 
When a man gives his brains to the Lord he has a 
right to believe that God will respect his reason and 
his judgment. The sun may be shining clearly in the 


140 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


heavens, but when I go into the cellar I must take 
a lamp with me. So there are many places where 
you must take the lamp of reason and exercise your 
own consecrated judgment. 

When I walk on the street I must open my eyes, 
or else I will stumble and fall over many things 
in the way. If you have an impression that you 
ought to do something, do like you do with a water- 
melon, thump it, rap it on the head and see if it has 
the right sound, thus testing it. If your impression 
is not sensible wait till it gets ripe. 

2. God guides us by His written word. “Thou 
wilt guide me by Thy counsel.” “Thy word have I 
hid in my hea^t that I might not sin against Thee.” 
What fools we must be to expect a new revelation 
from God when we won’t read what He has already 
given. When we disregard the plain command- 
ments what right have we to look for God to give 
us special revelations to suit our different cases, and 
yet there are a great many companies of people who 
talk about walking according to the inward revela- 
tion, while at the same time they discard nearly every 
truth that has been divinely revealed. The fall of 
man — original sin — the need of the atonement — 
the personality of God — justification by faith — re- 
generation — the witness of the Spirit — sanctification 


Guidance of The Holy Spirit. 141 

by faith and the resurrection of the body are all 
flatly denied or glossed over and perverted so as to 
make the Word of God of none effect. 

It is certainly true that men cannot have direct 
and special guidance from God who reject and 
disobey God’s written word. 

When God says: “Thou shalt not steal,” “Thou 
shalt not lie,” “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” 
“Thou shalt not kill” or “Thou shalt love the Lord,” 
that is guidance enough without a special revelation 
and whoever refuses to obey the written revelations 
will get his inward revelations from the devil and 
not from God. 

3. Another method of guidance is the MIN- 
ISTRY OF OTHERS. God lays his hand upon 
some men and makes them the instruments for the 
guidance of His people. “Thou leadest thy people 
out of Egypt like a flock.” How? “By the hand of 
Moses and Aaron.” The Scriptures are full of il- 
lustrations where the Lord sent one man to help 
others. 

When Saul was smitten on the way to Damascus, 
the Lord sent Ananias to tell him what to do and to 
impart unto him the Holy Spirit. Peter was sent 
to Cornelius for the same purpose and Philip was 
sent to the Eunuch who said that he could not under- 


142 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

stand the Scripture unless some man explained it, 
and Paul gives special directions for this Divine 
Guidance by the ministry when he says : “The things 
that thou hast heard of me, commit thou unto faith- 
ful men who shall be able to teach others also.” For 
any one to say that he has no need to be taught of 
others is simply to say that he is in the whirlpool of 
fanacticism, but does not John say in His First 
Epistle, 2nd Chapter and 27th verse that: “Ye need 
not that any man teach you,” yes, but he did not 
mean that they needed not the true imnistry, but 
only that they must not listen to men who would 
pervert the scripture, for he says in the preceding 
verse, “These things are written concerning them, 
that would seduce you.” It was simply listening to 
men as men only and not as holy men sent from 
God. 

No matter how holy, wise and prudent you are 
you will often need to be guided by some of God’s 
chosen ones, for this is His method of guidance. 

4. The Holy Spirit shall guide you into all the 
truth. The direct guidance of the Holy Spirit is the 
subject of great trouble to most people. A great 
many Christians want the Holy Spirit to guide 
them by revelations or by impressions, or by some 
thought, or by some word, or by some special sign 


Guidance of The Holy Spirit. 143 

or manifestation. They want the Spirit to guide 
them for instance in the performance of some duty, 
or in the decision of some doubtful question, or to 
enable them to judge which of two things ought to 
be done when both seem to be proper. They think 
they get an impression from the Spirit and when 
they have done it they find they have been mistaken. 
So the guidance of the Holy Spirit instead of being 
the end of all trouble and the solution of all dif- 
ficulty, is really itself a grievous perplexity, and the 
troubled Christian does not know how to be guided 
nor when he is guided by the Spirit. I want to 
show you, if I can, what the difficulty is with us. 
The trouble is that we are seeking the guidance of 
the Holy Spirit by impressions on our minds, on our 
thoughts, on our feelings, rather than the guidance 
of the Holy Spirit in our life. We are wanting the 
Holy Spirit to guide us by some external impres- 
sion rather than guide us in the life. “He that fol- 
loweth Me shall not walk in darkness but shall have 
the light of life.” 

The Holy Spirit guides us in our life — not 
through an impression made on our mind, but 
through the new life that we are living. This was 
what Jesus meant when he said, “In him was life 
and the life was the light of men.” When the life 


144 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

of Jesus is brought unto you by the Holy Spirit, 
then the life of Jesus in you becomes the light that 
illuminates your mind and proper decisions are 
brought forth; and in that way you know not by 
impressions but by the Holy Spirit that dwells in 
you. Your life illuminates your mind and right 
decisions are made. 

The leading of the Spirit and the indwelling of 
the Spirit are intimately connected together. When 
Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit then was He 
led of the Spirit into the wilderness. How? By 
some impression from heaven? By some revela- 
tion from the skies? No. It was by the Spirit that 
dwelt in his body, that permeated his soul, that took 
possession of his life and led him into the wilder- 
ness. Thus intimately connected are the life of the 
Spirit and the leading of the Spirit. Paul says: 
“Present your bodies a living sacrifice,” and when 
you have presented your bodies a living sacrifice 
you can “prove what is the good and perfect and 
acceptable will of God.” “If ye through the Spirit 
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Do 
you see that the leading of God does not come from 
the outside, out of heaven upon your mind but that 
it comes from the Spirit that dwells within you? 
Down deeper than your thought, deeper than emo- 


Guidance of The Holy Spirit. 145 

tions or feelings of your body, down in your very 
spirit in the labyrinth of your very soul, there 
dwells the Holy Spirit. There he moulds your will, 
there he works upon your character, and there he 
moves, there he impels, there he inspires you, so 
that out of your very life and not down from heaven 
or from some impression that may come from other 
sources, but out of your very soul is the way the 
Spirit guides you. 





SCRIPTURE LESSON. 

THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same 
Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, 
but the same Lord. And there are diversities of 
operations, but it is the same God which worketh all 
in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to 
every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the 
Spirit the word of wisdom ; to another the word of 
knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by 
the same Spirit; to another the gift of healing by 
the same Spirit ; to another the working of miracles ; 
to another prophecy ; to another discerning of spirits ; 
to another divers kinds of tongues ; to another the in- 
terpretation of tongues; but all these worketh that 
one and the self came Spirit, dividing to every man 
severally as he will. For as the body is one and 
hath many members, and all the members of that one 
body, being many are one body, so also is Christ.” 
I Cor. 12, 4-12. 


147 








































CHAPTER IX. 

THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

I beg of you to notice carefully that the diversi- 
ties of gifts are attributed to the Spirit, the diversi- 
ties of ministries to Jesus Christ, and the diver- 
sities of operations to God, the Father. I do not 
think that this is a fanciful or poetical expression, 
but a great truth that the church needs to learn. 

Paul calls the attention of the believer to this 
fact, that there are differences of operations, but 
it is the same God that worketh all in all. The 
same God in creations and in providences, the sun, 
the moon, the stars and the earth all differ from one 
another, but it is the same God that worketh and 
createth and ruleth all of them. The trees, the 
flowers, the shrubs and the grasses all differ from 
one another, but it is the same God that hath created 
them all. The birds of the air, the beasts of the 
field, the fish of the sea, the creeping things of this 
life differ one from another, but it is the same God 


149 


150 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

that worketh in the different creations — that work- 
eth, createth and superintendeth them. 

“There are diversities of ministrations, but the 
same Lord.” That is to say, that the Lord Jesus 
Christ seems to be connected with, and has the 
superintendence of, the ministries. “He gave some, 
apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evangelists ; 
and some, pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting of 
the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edify- 
ing of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity 
of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God 
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of 
the fullness of Christ.” The Lord Jesus, when He 
led captivity captive, obtained gifts for men, ob- 
tained these positions, these authorities, these orders, 
and ranks, through which the membership is to be 
edified, through which the Gospel is to be spread, 
through which the church is to have power. 

The Father seems to be associated with the power 
of creation and of providences. The Son seems to 
be associated more closely with the ministries and 
orders in the kingdom which He has set up. The 
Son ordained the kingdom of heaven on earth and 
set it up among men, and He is more closely con- 
nected with the ministries of the kingdom. 

The Spirit seems to be the source of fullness in 


Gifts of The Holy Spirit. 


151 

these ministries, the source of power in the various 
workers of the kingdom. Among the ministries 
there are differences of gifts, but it is the same 
Spirit. 

These spiritual gifts were very common in the 
church for 300 years after Pentecost, and it was 
expected they would remain permanently. When 
Constantine claimed to be a Christian, having great 
wealth and being a great ruler, he endowed the 
church, especially the ministry, and from that time 
on the gifts of the Spirit were seldom manifest. 
This was not because the world had become Chris- 
tian, and the gifts of the Spirit were not needed, 
because not a twentieth part of the world had 
nominally become Christians. It was because the 
church had become worldly, especially the ministry. 
Constantine endowed the ministers with great pos- 
sessions, and when they had great wealth they lost 
their spirituality, until they had no more salvation 
than the heathen among whom they lived. The 
Spirit was grieved for hundreds of years. The great 
falling away happened, the dark ages came, and the 
church groped in darkness without the fruit or the 
gifts of the Spirit. Nearly every spiritual man was 
imprisoned or killed by the church authorities. 


152 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

Let us look at the gifts of the Spirit that are 
mentioned in these verses that I have read. 

I beg of you to notice that the gifts of the Spirit 
are not the fruit of the Spirit. The gifts of the 
Spirit are the manifestations of God to our senses. 
The fruit of the Spirit are the impartations of God 
to our characters. The gifts are irregular and of 
unequal value. Paul says he would sooner speak 
five words of testimony than ten thousand words in 
an unknown tongue. 

The gifts are not for all, while the fruit is for 
all, for “every branch in me that beareth not fruit 
he taketh away.” The gifts are obtained by asking 
while the fruit is obtained by abiding. The gifts 
call attention to ourselves, and are often the cause 
of strife and contention in the church. The gifts 
are instrumental, and do not belong to character. 
They are lodged in the voice, or will, or body, and 
have no relation to piety ; Samson, Solomon, 
Balaam and Judas all had gifts, but they were none 
of them examples of Christian living. 

Jesus says, many will say unto him “Lord, Lord, 
have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy 
name cast out devils, and in thy name done many 
wonderful works,” and that he would say to them, 


Gifts of the Holy Spirit. 153 

“Depart from me ye workers of iniquity, I never 
knew you.’’ 

Paul shows in I Corinthians, 13th chapter, that a 
man may have all the gifts and yet not be a Christian 
at all. “Though I speak with the tongues of men 
and angels and have not love — I am become as sound- 
ing brass and a tinkling cymbal. Though I have the 
gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries 
and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so 
that I could remove mountains and have not love 
I am nothing. ,, A man might say, “I have all the 
facilities for farming and merchandising all the 
facilities for manufacturing or railroading, but I 
have not patriotism ; I am loyal to the king of Eng- 
land.” He would not be a good citizen. He might 
use his talents and gifts for his own interests or 
the advantage of King Edward. 

I. There is the Gift of the Word of Wisdom. 

It is said that unto one is given the word of wis- 
dom. This does not mean scientific wisdom, but 
spiritual wisdom, the impartation of the truth of 
Christ Jesus. It means the fulfillment of the word 
that Jesus said, “He shall take the things of mine 
and reveal them unto you.” In this kingdom the 
Lord has appointed ministers, and teachers, and 
helpers, and when they are loyal to their work the 


154 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

Holy Spirit is pledged to impart unto them in his 
own way the right impressions of God, the right 
conception of the things of God that they shall 
speak wisely and shall teach truly.” So that “if 
any man will do the will of God,” as they teach it, “he 
shall know of the doctrine.” 

Now I am sure we do not appreciate the Holy 
Spirit as a teacher. We have learned to rely upon 
what we can gather as facts in history and in the 
sciences and in literature ; but we are not relying on 
the Holy Spirit as the teacher of his wisdom and 
knowledge. What a wonderful teacher the Holy 
Spirit is ! Did you ever notice how happy and suc- 
cessful men are, and how satisfied they are when 
they come under the inspiration and leadership of 
the Holy Spirit? 

Take that Ethiopian in the desert riding in the 
chariot reading from the prophet Isaiah. He says, 
“How can a man understand these things unless 
somebody teach them?” Just then the Spirit took 
Philip away from the revival in Samaria and sent 
him into the desert and put him into the chariot with 
this Ethiopian. Philip spent two hours with him, 
and then baptized him, and he received the Holy 
Spirit, and the Ethiopian went on his way with 
great joy. He only had a conference for two hours, 


Gifts of the Holy Spirit. 155 

and he went away with great joy, for he had the 
Holy Spirit, and relied upon Him as the source and 
inspiration of the Scripture. He had somebody 
that could interpret to him the Word of God and 
explain to him the things of the kingdom, and so 
he went away from Philip with great joy. 

Take the church at Antioch that had just been 
pulled out of the filth of heathenism, the vilest of 
the time. Two apostles were sent down there. They 
preached a few sermons, called these people out and 
baptized them, and they received the Holy Spirit. 
Then they were without a teacher, without a 
preacher, with nothing, not even the Old Testa- 
ment; there was no New Testament. And yet they 
were full of joy, because the Holy Spirit was their 
teacher. He was to take the things of Jesus and 
show it unto them, He was to lead them into all 
truth. 

Do we rely upon the Holy Spirit to impart wisdom 
unto us and to take the things of Jesus and show 
them unto us? I wish we could arouse you to the 
fact that we may have an unction from on high, 
when the Holy Spirit comes to abide in us. He is 
the teacher to impart to us his wisdom. 

Wesley had this gift of wisdom, and adapted his 
sermons and methods to the times in which he 


156 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

lived. This gift of wisdom enabled him to become 
all things to all men, if by any means he might save 
some. This gift enabled him to consider times, 
environments, habits and dispositions; for without 
this gift he was not skillful or wise in saving men. 
There is a right way to use the truth as well as to 
use a plow or a threshing machine. I have seen 
many a preacher cutting wheat with a plow or plant- 
ing corn with a threshing machine. Defeating the 
very object for which he was laboring. 

II. The Word of Knoivledge — the Utterance of 
Knowledge. 

This may be the ability to explain the meaning of 
Scripture or providences, the operations of the 
Spirit, or the wiles of the Devil. I believe it is the 
insight into the divine truth and verities. It is not 
so much intellectual knowledge as it is the knowl- 
edge of man — life — knowledge. It does not come 
so much by study as by inspiration, meditation and 
prayer. God can give a man more knowledge in a 
minute than he can get from books in a year. 

This is the reason poor ignorant Burk can ex- 
plain the Bible when he cannot read a sentence. This 
is why that student at Philips academy could preach 
so the professors and scholars would be amazed, 
when he had never mastered a single lesson. This 


Gifts of the Holy Spirit. 157 

is why Amanda Smith could give such instructive 
Bible lessons thirty years ago, when she could not 
read a verse in the New Testament. We need 
graduates from colleges and learned men — but the 
great need in the ministry of the word is this gift of 
knowledge from the Holy Ghost. 

III. There is the Gift of Faith. This is the faith 
of God. Not the faith by which we are converted 
nor by which we are sanctified, but the faith by 
which we are instrumental in the conviction, con- 
version and sanctification of others. This is why 
so many do nothing, having no gift of faith that God 
can work through them. We are also to comfort 
and bear one another’s burdens in this way. “Him 
that is weak in the faith receive ye.” “We then 
that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the 
weak.” Have you never seen people comforted and 
strengthened by the faith of others. I have seen 
people in the greatest distress comforted by strong 
believers. In fact, God has come to me many a time 
and given me the gift of faith so that others have 
been lifted out of their troubles. 

Mr. Finney tells of a stammering blacksmith that 
was so troubled over the sins of his town that he 
shut himself up in his blacksmith shop and prayed 
and fasted for seven days until at last God gave 


158 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

him the victory, and a glorious revival came, and 
many hundreds were converted. 

This is the faith by which God assures the be- 
liever that the work can be done. 

This follows naturally the gift of wisdom and 
knowledge — so that when anything is known, and 
seen to be the will of God, there comes this in- 
spiration of ability that it can be done. 

There are hundreds of ministers who see what 
ought to be done, but have no convictions that they 
themselves are the persons to do it. They need 
the gift of faith. 

IV. The Gifts of Healing. 

The gifts of healing are also mentioned. These 
have reference to the healing of the sick. The Spirit 
imparts from Himself the gifts of healing to persons 
in the church — not to all that are in the church. It 
is not taught that all who are believers in the Lord 
Jesus Christ have the gifts of healing, any more 
than that of wisdom or faith or knowledge. Paul 
says, — “Are all prophets?” “Are all apostles?” 
“Have all the gifts of healing?” Thus declaring 
that they do not all have these gifts, but God im- 
parts them as he will. The gifts of healing have 
been given to the church in all ages of the world. 
Perhaps it would be right to explain the trouble and 


Gifts of the Holy Spirit. 159 

remove the difficulties that are in the minds of some 
people concerning these gifts of healing. I will, 
however, only speak of some things which are im- 
portant and which should be said. 

1. We know that when Jesus was upon the earth 
he and his disciples had the gifts of healing. They 
healed the sick. 2. We know that the sick have 
promises for healing — whether the prayer is offered 
by themselves, or by others for them. 3. We know 
that these gifts of healing are special gifts, and 
healing is not to be general in the church ; no person 
is to be condemned because he is not able to be- 
lieve that the Lord can heal him, because the gifts 
of healing are not imparted to everyone. When 
the disciples went out and healed the sick, they had 
a special commission. They did not heal as be- 
lievers, but as special messengers of the Lord. And 
so the Apostle says: “Are all prophets? are all 
apostles ? are all teachers ? are all evangelists ? have 
all the gifts of healing?” showing it was not true 
that all should have the gifts of healing. 

4. We have no statement in the Word of God 
that any of the gifts have ever been withdrawn. We 
have not the least shadow of a sentence that any 
of these gifts shall ever be withdrawn from the 
church, but Iwe do have a statement that they shall 


i6o Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

continue to follow those that believe. We are sure 
that it is because of unbelief, because of worldliness 
that all these gifts are discontinued; unbelief has 
kept the church from expecting or coveting or 
desiring to have them. And when the church comes 
back to a spiritual condition, to the normal condi- 
tion, these gifts will be manifest again. 

5. These gifts are not to be relied upon as the 
essentials of your salvation. They have no connec- 
tion with your salvation. You may have all the gifts 
of healing and yet have no salvation and no right 
to heaven. They are not essential to your salva- 
tion. You are not to suppose that because you have 
no special gifts you have no salvation, because these 
gifts are the sovereign gifts of God imparted to 
whomsoever he will. The gifts of healing are not 
homogenous with salvation; they belong to the de- 
partment of spiritual gifts. A man can get to heaven 
from a sick body but not with a sin sick soul. 

V. The Working of Miracles is the Next Gift. 

We have been afraid of that word, miracles, and 
we have relegated this gift to the age of the apos- 
tles ; but this is one of the chief gifts, and as avail- 
able today as in the days of Paul. The literal mean- 
ing of the Greek words, “energemota dunamion, ,, is 
“workings of dynamite/’ The word “dunamion” is 


Gifts of the Holy Spirit. 161 

usually translated power. Jesus says, “Ye shall re- 
ceive power, the Holy Ghost coming on you,” and 
the word translated power is the same word “dun- 
amion.” Paul says to Thessalonians, “Our gospel 
came not unto you in word only, but in power, — 
dunamion.” He says to the Romans, “The gospel 
is the power of God unto salvation,” and that is 
the only divine definition of the gospel. The gospel 
is not only good news, but Dunamion. Now, in 
these and a dozen other places, the word translated 
power is the same word translated miracles in this 
gift. So the gift means the working of power, — gos- 
per power, — saving power, — and not merely physi- 
cal miracles. 

Sin is like a hard rock in the heart, and nothing 
but God’s power can destroy it. We want divine 
power for conviction, and divine power for con- 
version, and divine power for entire sanctification. 

By this gift a man becomes the instrument, the 
agent by which the Holy Spirit convicts and con- 
verts and sanctifies the people. 

This gift of the manipulation of power is being 
received again. Finney was wonderfully endowed 
with it. The cotton mill experience, where men 
and women were prostrated before he said a word 
is familiar to you all. Carvosso had it. He would 


1 62 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

run after a man down the street, and the man would 
be saved. He would ride in a coach, and perhaps 
ten or twelve would be saved before he would get 
out. 

Benjamin Abbot enjoyed this gift, and sometimes 
hundreds of men fell under one sermon. Even 
Samuel Morris, the Rru boy from Africa was 
greatly used in this country, and many American 
people were saved. 

VI. The Gift of Prophecy. 

The original word for prophesy meant to boil, 
like a spring or an artesian well. 

Jesus said the water that I shall give him shall be 
in him a well of water springing up into' ever- 
lasting life. 

The prophet said, “I will pour out my spirit upon 
all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall 
prophesy.” 

We learn in Revelations 19, 10, that the testimony 
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Witnessing for 
Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. The Lord wants 
all his people to have this spirit of prophecy, for he 
said, “Ye shall receive power, the Holy Ghost com- 
ing upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me.” 

Paul says, “He that prophesieth speaketh unto 
the people edification, exhortation and comfort.” 


Gifts of the Holy Spirit. 163 

Would God that all his people were prophets — 
would God that all Christians had this perfect 
spiritual liberty to talk for him at home or abroad, 
in private or public. 

This is the preaching by which the world is saved, 
and by which Christians are kept from backsliding. 
This is what Paul means when he says, “Take the 
word of God which is the sword of the spirit.” 
Take the spirit of prophecy, for without this you 
are like a soldier without a sword. 

The word of God is not merely the written book. 
It is the voice of God in us by which the world is 
to be saved. 

John says the Devil and his angels are now mak- 
ing war against those who keep the commandments 
of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ; that 
is why it is so hard to testify ; not merely timidity or 
weakness, but powers and principalities and wicked 
spirits in heavenly places are keeping the mouth of 
the church shut. With this gift we can overcome 
them by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our 
testimony. 

VII. The Discerning of Spirits 

This gift is a supernatural sagacity to discern be- 
tween satanical spirits, or the spirit of anti-Christ 
and divinely inspired men. 


164 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

2. Or it may be given so as to read men, and 
to know whether they are the ones to do a certain 
work. The Holy Ghost said to the early church: 
“Separate me Barnabas and Saul for which I have 
called them.” The Bishops and presiding elders need 
it for that purpose. 

3. Or it may be to see and know the inward pur- 
poses of men’s hearts, as Peter saw the heart of 
Ananias and the thoughts of Simon Magus. 

This gift especially follows prophecy, or the testi- 
mony of Jesus. 

John says, “Try the spirits whether they be of 
God, for many false prophets are gone into the 
world, and every spirit that does not acknowledge 
that Jesus Christ ‘is come’ in the flesh, is not of 
God.” Not has come, but “is come,” for greater 
is he that is in you than he that is in the world, 
that is Satan. Every man that does not give the 
glory of his success and victories to the indwelling 
Christ, is not of God. 

James tells us that a most orthodox congregation 
is an assembly of Devils. 

These Devils have not forgotten how to play the 
angel role and some Christians cannot tell the dif- 
ference between a white Devil as an angel of light, 
and the Holy Ghost. They cannot tell the difference 


Gifts of the Holy Spirit. 


165 

between a company of mumbling Christian Scien- 
tists and a prayer meeting. They cannot distinguish 
between a seance and a Sunday School. The clean 
and the unclean are all alike. Like that parliament 
of religions at the World’s Fair. There was no 
idolatry there, it was all of God. Midway Plaisance 
and all. But with this gift of discerning spirits we 
will read men and places and atmospheres, like we 
read books, and we will not need to waste our lives 
in throwing pearls to swine. A sanctified preacher 
without this gift, goes to his congregation and 
preaches holiness, when one-half the people make 
no profession of regeneration, and the other half 
are backslidden, and the people say he is a fool or 
a crank, and he is persecuted for his indiscretions 
and lack of discerning spirits. No man can do altar 
work without this gift. He will not know whether the 
seeker needs enlightenment, conviction, regeneration, 
reclamation, sanctification or comfort. 

VIII. The Gift of Tongues. 

The gift of tongues was for a sign of God’s pres- 
ence. Not to them that believe but to them that 
believe not. I think it was of the least value of any 
of the gifts. This gift was imparted in the exer- 
cises of prayer and praise, when the spirit would 
overflow the mind, so that the spirit of the man 
was talking but not the understanding. 


166 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

This gift was not imparted for the purpose of 
speaking to men , but to God. It was never used 
in addressing foreigners. It was not used for the 
edification of the believers; for it's use was for- 
bidden in the assemblies unless there was someone 
to interpret, and never more than three were al- 
lowed to speak with tongues, and they had to do it, 
one at a time. The disciples did not seek for tongues, 
and Paul forbids it, telling them to covet earnestly 
the best gifts. 

The Pentecostal gift of tongues was immediately 
understood by the people, and three thousand were 
converted. The modern gift of tongues is not 
understood by anybody on earth. They jerk and 
jump, roll and tumble, and twist their jaws, and out 
comes something, they do not know what it is and 
nobody else does. 

IX. The Interpretation of Tongues. 

This gift followed the gift of tongues, and where- 
ever men were speaking in tongues others were 
to interpret. 

In a broad sense, the interpretation of tongues 
may mean the interpretation of language, and that 
is as much needed today as ever. Many sermons 
today need an interpreter more than anything else, 


Guidance of the Holy Spirit. 167 

except the waste basket or the fire. They are made 
in the head, made from books, made in the study, 
made from skeletons, made for the praise of men, 
and two-thirds of the congregation do not under- 
stand them. 

I asked a Sunday School teacher how she liked 
her new pastor — Oh, he is splendid — he is a wonder- 
ful preacher, but I don’t understand him at all. He 
was preaching over her understanding, and that was 
an unknown tongue. He needed an interpreter. 

I once asked a boy how he liked my sermon, and 
he said, “I couldn’t see any sense in it at all,” and 
I found I had used one word frequently that he did 
not understand, and that one word was like a fly 
in the ointment — it spoiled the sermon. 

“Having then gifts differing according to the 
grace given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy 
according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, 
let us wait on our ministering ; or he that teacheth, 
on teaching ; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation ; he 
that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that 
ruleth, with diligence ; he that sheweth mercy, with 
cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation; 
abhor -that which is evil, cleave to that which is 
good.” 


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SCRIPTURE LESSON. 

THE FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long- 
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. 

Meekness, temperance; against such there is no 
law. Gal. 5, 22-23. 

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he 
taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit 
he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 

I am the vine, ye are the branches ; he that abideth 
in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much 
fruit, for without me ye can do nothing. St. John 
15 , 2-5. . 

My well beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruit- 
ful hill. Isaiah 5, 1. 


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CHAPTER X. 


THE FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

I beg you to notice carefully that the scriptural 
term is fruit, not fruits. We say fruits, but God 
says fruit and the difference is worldwide. “Every 
tree is known by its own fruit.” “A good tree 
bringeth forth good fruit,” not some good fruit and 
some bad fruit. “And a corrupt tree bringeth forth 
corrupt fruit.” “Every branch in me that beareth 
fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more 
fruit.” The fruit of the Spirit as described in the 
text has at least nine clusters, or nine qualities, 
but the fruit is one. There are other qualities that 
are not mentioned here, but the fruit is one. Any 
one of these clusters is just as truly a part of the 
fruit of the Spirit as any of the others. No one 
part of this fruit should be cultivated to the neglect 
of the other. The desire to see in our hearts but 
one of these clusters is a deception of the devil. 

No one of these clusters is sufficient to meet all 
the demands of any human life and every quality 


171 


172 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

needs the other qualities to give it tone and flavor. 
Love must be supported by faithfulness, meekness 
and self-control before it is seen to be perfect love 
that casteth out fear. If there is no meekness, nor 
faithfulness, nor self-control with love, then it is 
only childish love. 

One serious mistake that Christians make is to 
expect the same cluster of the fruit of the Spirit 
under all circumstances ; the same manifestations of 
the Spirit’s indwelling under different trials and bur- 
dens of life. The virtues in plants are often diversi- 
fied. In the winter the virtue is in the root. In 
the spring it is in the bud or the leaf, while in the 
summer it is in the flower or the fruit. So the fruit 
of the Spirit does not appear in the same way all 
the time, but sometimes in love or joy, at other 
times in faithfulness, long suffering or self control. 
There are many times when self control is the great 
evidence of the indwelling Spirit. When you are 
being imposed on, then self-control is needed. When 
you are tempted to gratify any of the desires or ap- 
petites to the sacrifice of rightness or duty, then 
self control is evidence that the Spirit is dwelling in 
you. Then there are times when long suffering is 
the only fruit of the Spirit that will meet the case. 
When things are turbulent, or belligerent, gentle- 


Fruit of the Holy Spirit. 173 

ness is the evidence of the Spirit’s indwelling. 
Gentleness will recommend a Christian in such times 
better than joy, though most people are careless 
about gentleness and are clamorous for joy. Then 
at other times of backsliding, faithfulness is the 
fruit of the Spirit. If you are always trying to bear 
one cluster of the fruit, you will find yourself fre- 
quently in great spiritual barrenness. Here in this 
meeting you may have great joy, but if you take 
that to be the special fruit you are to bear, when 
joy is gone you will say that the Holy Spirit is 
gone. If you say here in this house, “I have peace,” 
and think that is the only fruit of the Spirit, you 
may soon be in a place where peace is not so evi- 
dent, but where faithfulness or long-suffering is 
needed and you will think the Spirit is gone when 
He is giving you a blessed manifestation of faith- 
fulness, or long-suffering. If a man claims per- 
fect love here and going home is impatient with his 
neighbor, his profession of love is discounted, but if 
he has gentleness that will confirm his love. If a 
man claims peace here and then is irritable at home 
his profession of peace is of no value, for the Holy 
Spirit iwho gives peace here is to give self-control at 
home. A person has “joy unspeakable and full of 
glory” in the house of God but does not have long- 


174 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 


suffering with his enemies and all his profession of 
joy in the Lord is discredited. 

I wish you would notice that it is not the fruit 
of the new Spirit, but the fruit of the Holy Spirit 
of which we speak. The new Spirit alone cannot 
bear fruit any more than the branch can bear fruit 
without the vine. 'The branch cannot bear fruit 
except it abide in the vine. ,, Jesus taught this truth 
to the disciples when he said to them, “Without me 
ye can do nothing.” All the fruit of the Spirit is 
the natural outflow of the Spirit abiding in us, just 
as it was in Jesus. “If a man abide in me and I 
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” 



If these things are not so, it is simply the proof 


we are not living in the Spirit. All the com- 


plaints that are made by ourselves, or by those 
around us, of unruly tempers, of selfishness, or 
feebleness or deadness, is simply the evidence that 
it is not yet understood, that to be a Christian is to 
be filled with the Spirit of Christ so that Christ will 
be living in me and I shall be living by the faith 
of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself 
for me. We then may be fountains of love, foun- 
tains of peace, fountains of goodness, fountains of 
life, springing up and flowing out in streams of holy 
power wherever we may go. Do you not know 


Fruit of the Holy Spirit. 175 

that Jesus said to the woman of Samaria, “Whoso- 
ever drinketh the water that I shall give him shall 
never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall 
be in him a well of water springing up into ever- 
lasting life.” John 4-13. 

Take love the first cluster. The business of every 
Christian is to reveal love. Jesus Christ was love 
incarnate. He clothed himself in flesh that he might 
reveal love to the world, and he sent his disciples 
into the world to carry on that same love life. 
Christians are to be love incarnated. How can this 
be done ? How can we be possessed and permeated 
with love? This is the way. 

I. The love of God is implanted in the heart 
when we are regenerated, but in that state love is 
limited or feeble. It is not that deep, holy con- 
suming love for sinners that Jesus had. Jesus 
sheds forth the Holy Spirit and that Spirit coming 
into us, sheds forth the love of God in our hearts. 
Then the love of God for the redemption of men 
will reach to the poorest, lowest and farthest 
heathen. It will be as unlimited in us as it was in 
Jesus Christ. Our capacities will be filled with 
love. 

When the Spirit abides in us there will be compas- 
sion for unsaved people, inexpressible yearning for 


176 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

sinners just as there was in Jesus. When the leper 
met Him he said, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst 
make me clean,” and Jesus moved with compassion 
put forth his hand and touched Him saying, “I 
will, be thou clean.” When he saw the great hungry 
multitude, he was moved with compassion and gave 
them all the food they needed and healed all that 
had need of healing. When he looked upon Jerusa- 
lem he was so moved with compassion that he wept 
aloud and cried out saying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusa- 
lem, which killest the prophets and stonest them that 
are sent unto thee ; how often would I have gathered 
thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood 
under her wings, and ye would not!” Thus if the 
Spirit dwells in you, you will see sinful men, sick 
men, hungry men, drunken men, and long to save 
them and help them. 

Did you ever hear the story of the Baptist Zulu 
Mission in Africa? Mr. Stanley speaks of it as 
the greatest mission in the world. The founder, 
Mr. Richards, was there seven years without a 
convert. One Sunday he told them that some- 
thing was wrong, either he was not a missionary, 
or that he was not preaching the gospel, or else the 
gospel was not the power of God unto the salvation 
of the Zulus, and said he, “I will tell you next Sun- 


Fruit of the Holy Spirit. 177 

day what is the matter.” He and his wife read the 
Bible, prayed and fasted and the next Sunday the 
house was full to hear his conclusion. After the 
service he said: “I am sent as a missionary. The 
gospel is the power of God unto salvation, but I 
have not been preaching the gospel, but the law 
and morality. I will now try to preach the gospel 
and am going to live it.” And so he began at Mat- 
thew to tell the good news about Jesus and when 
he came to the Sermon on the Mount he read this 
sentence, “Give to him that asketh of thee and from 
him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away.” 
He gave it the usual definition, but they shook their 
heads for they were all beggars. “Come back next 
Sunday and I will tell you exactly what it means.” 
The next Sunday he said it meant what it said, and 
if they wanted anything he had and would ask him 
he would give it to them, and if they wanted to 
borrow he would lend them anything he had. After 
the benediction they went to his home and took 
everything that he had except one lounge. The 
next morning two Zulus met on the corner and 
one said, “Let us go to the home of the missionary 
and get something.” They went to his house and he 
gave them the lounge. When they were carrying 
out the lounge, one of them was so convicted by 


178 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

the Spirit that he began to cry. They knelt down 
and prayed and he was converted. In two years 
7,000 more were led to Christ. 

II. Joy is the second cluster of the fruit of the 
Spirit. This is kin to love. The joy of the Lord 
is your strength. Joy is love, hopping, skipping and 
jumping out on a green pasture. Joy is love, caper- 
ing, leaping and praising God for his unmerited 
favors. God wants us to be joyful. 

The disciples were so full of joy at Pentecost 
that they were accused of being on a drunken frolic. 
Jesus had told them to ask and receive that their 
joy might be full. They had been asking and re- 
ceiving and their joy was unspeakable and full of 
glory. 

Nothing hurts the church more than the wilful- 
ness, sourness, and foolish murmuring that some 
people are passing off for Christianity. I always 
pity them. They have that peculiar look half way 
between resignation and martyrdom. They do not 
seem to see the difference between righteousness 
and biliousness. You cannot tell whether they 
have religion or dyspepsia, but you know they 
have something awful. Send one of these sad, 
cadaverous, pessimistic Christians out after young 
sinners, and you might as well send a hearse to the 


Fruit of the Holy Spirit. 179 

front gate and ask the young people to crawl in the 
hearse and have a buggy ride. 

Since I have been in this evangelistic work an 
undertaker in the church I had served was going 
to the depot with a corpse and having an hour to 
spare stopped in front of my gate and came in to 
visit with the family. The children were scared 
and ran up stairs. The telephone rang and the 
neighbors said, “What’s the matter, is anybody 
dead.” Another knocked at the kitchen door and 
said, “Oh, has your husband been killed?” They 
didn’t ask him to come again and were glad when 
he drove the hearse away. 

III. Peace is also a Fruit of the Spirit. This 
is not merely peace with God, but the peace of God 
that flows out from the abiding Spirit. The Holy 
Spirit can keep the soul in peace, no matter what 
may be the external circumstances. No matter what 
worries, what perplexities, what cares, what dan- 
gers, what griefs, what sorrows, what slanders, what 
persecutions. No change of providence, no revolu- 
tion in social affairs, no family troubles, no financial 
crash, can destroy the peace of God in the soul. 
“Great peace have they which love thy law and 
nothing shall offend them.” 

The early church had this peace to a remarkable 


180 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

extent. Take the case of Peter in the hands of 
Herod. There is no such name as Herod in the 
New Testament times. Herod the grandfather 
killed all the little children that he might kill 
Jesus. Herod the father had killed John the 
Baptist, and now Herod Agrippa had killed James 
the brother of John, and when he saw that it 
pleased the Jews he arrested Peter, put him in 
chains and then in prison. The keepers are at 
the doors and sixteen soldiers are guarding him. 
His fate is sealed. He is doomed to die. He is to 
be murdered. Now, pull aside the curtain and 
look into Peter’s cell. Is he walking the room in 
agony? Is he lamenting his fate? Is he sending 
out petitions to implore Herod for mercy? No, no. 
When Herod would have brought him forth, that 
same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers 
and bound with two chains. He was sleeping so 
soundly that the angel broke off his chains, lifted 
him up, and walked him out the gate, then tapped 
him on the head and said, “Wake up, Peter, wake 
up.” As the loving mother takes up the frightened 
child, smoothes his hair, kisses his cheeks and wipes 
away his tears, singing some lullaby of love till 
he sleeps in peace, “Hush my dear, lie still and 
slumber, Holy angels guard thy bed.” So God 


Fruit of the Holy Spirit. 181 

the Almighty took Peter in his arms saying. Sleep, 
my darling, sleep. These same great arms will 
clasp every trusting soul and give it the peace which 
passeth all understanding. 

IV. Long Su ffering is Also a Cluster of the Fruit 
of the Spirit. Long suffering is simply patience in 
exercise. Patience long drawn out. Patience repeat- 
ing itself. Long suffering is ability to endure any 
provocation and affliction. Again and again Jesus 
taught the disciples that they must have long suffer- 
ing. “How often,” said one of them, “can my brother 
sin against me and I forgive him? Seven times? 
“Nay,” said Jesus, “not seven times, but seventy 
times seven.” That is as long as he needs forgive- 
ness. Paul had this spirit of long suffering. “Of the 
Jews five time received I forty stripes save one.” 
Then hear him say “My heart’s desire and prayer to 
God for Israel is that they may be saved.” “I say the 
truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing 
me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great 
heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart, for I 
could wish that myself were accursed from Christ 
for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh.” 
That is I wish Christ would let me be crucified for the 
Jews. 


182 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

V. Gentleness Is Another Cluster of the Fruit of 
the Spirit. Paul says, “The servants of the Lord 
must be gentle unto all men apt to teach.” This grace 
has special reference to teachers. In commending 
Silas and himself, Paul said : “We were gentle among 
you even as a nursing mother nourisheth her chil- 
dren.” James says, “The wisdom that is from above 
is first pure then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreat- 
ed, full of mercy and good fruits.” Those who have 
wisdom (to impart, must be gentle. Self-willed 
masters, teachers or parents are never able to im- 
part wisdom to those over whom they are placed. 
I beseech you by the gentleness of Christ, see to it 
that you bear this fruit. Preachers and evange- 
lists need great gentleness. What gentleness Jesus 
manifested toward his disciples. He did not scold 
them when he had to repeat lessons of faith over 
and over to them. He was not offended and sulky 
because he was not preferred to Barrabas. He did 
not say harsh, rough things because his enemies 
preferred false charges against him. He did not 
complain when they put an old robe and crown 
of thorns on his head. He did not murmur nor 
rebel when the cruel nails went crushing through 
his hands and feet, but he said, “Father forgive 


Fruit of the Holy Spirit. 


183 

them for they know not what they do.” Oh, gentle 
Jesus meek and mild. Give me thy mind as an 
abiding presence and thy gentleness shall make me 
great. 

VI. Goodness is another cluster of the Fruit of 
the Spirit. Goodness is not something to look at 
or to display in a front window, or on a sign board, 
or in a newspaper, but it is always in connection 
with usefulness. When a man has real goodness he 
is not always flapping his wings in the face of the 
public. If you look at it, it will spoil. We all have 
seen some Christians who have been praised too 
much and looking at themselves they have soured. 
Goodness is Christianity on foot loaded with bless- 
ings. Goodness must bless somebody. Its hands 
must be full of blessings. Good cheer for the 
troubled, courage for the weak, bread for the 
hungry, clothes for the naked, comfort for the feeble 
minded, pardon for the sinful and life for the dy- 
ing. Suppose people were dying of thirst and an 
artesian well of pure water was opened in the city. 
Where would the people go? To the iwell, of 
course, but if they should go to the well fifty times 
and find no water, would you blame them if they 
stayed away ? 

The world is dying for the water of life and 


184 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

they have heard that we have it in our churches, 
and they have come to receive it, if possible, but 
alas, so many of us are thirsty, feverish, anxious, 
murmuring, fretting and worrying, that they go 
away saying, not there my soul, not there. It is time 
we were asking God not to bless us, but to make 
us blessings to others. 

VII. Faithfulness is another cluster of the Fruit 
of the Spirit. This is not the grace of faith by which 
all men may be saved, nor the gift of faith by which 
great things may be accomplished, but faithfulness 
which is not a gift, but fruit. 

When the City of Pompeii was buried, many peo- 
ple perished in different places, but when the city 
was exhumed they were found again. Some were 
found on their feet in the streets as if running 
for safety. Some in deep vaults where they had 
hid for security. Others were in the highest cham- 
bers where they climbed to escape suffocation from 
the ashes and lava. But where were the Roman 
sentinels found ? They found them at the city gates 
with their hands holding the spear and their faces 
toward the mountain. There they stood while the 
heavens threatened them, while the earth shook be- 
neath them, while the lava rolled over them and 


Fruit of the Holy Spirit. 185 

submerged the city, and there after a thousand years 
had rolled away they were found as an evidence of 
their faithfulness in time of peril. When the Holy 
Spirit dwells in a man, he will be faithful, faithful 
as a neighbor or a friend, faithful to his promises 
and pledges as a Christian. In the life of Jesus 
faithfulness glows from his very youth. “Wist ye 
not that I must be about my Father’s business. I 
must work the works of Him that sent me while it 
is day.” Tired and weary at the well of Jacob, he 
rose above all prejudice and caste saying: “My 
meat is to do the will of Him that sent me.” Then 
coming to the end of his life he said, “I have glori- 
fied Thee on the earth. I have finished the work 
which thou gavest me to do.” Faithful to the last 
breath of life, to the last syllable of his history, to 
the last moment of his time, to the last drop of his 
blood. 

God wants us to be faithful to the church, oh 
Christian men. There is no vow you ever made, 
that is so sacred and holy as the one you made at 
God’s altar to the church, the Body of Jesus. Take 
all your private vows and vows at the marriage 
altar and all your lodge vows, twist and bind them 
all together, but they are not as holy and sacred as 
this vow that you have made at God’s altar, and the 


186 Life and Times of Holy Spirit, 

Spirit is sent from heaven to keep you faithful to 
that vow. 

VIII. Meekness is another cluster of the fruit of 
the Spirit. We hear much today of our rights — as 
Christians. I wish we could hear more about meek- 
ness in the Christians. Jesus says, “I am meek and 
lowly in heart. Blessed are the meek.” The Holy 
Spirit is symbolized by the healing oil, by the peace- 
ful dove and by the gentle dew. A man full of the 
Holy Spirit may be led as a lamb to the slaughter, 
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he will 
not open his mouth. This was true of the apostles. 
They hvere mocked and scourged, stoned and im- 
prisoned and yet in it all they rejoiced that they 
were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. 
There was no anger or bitterness, no wrath or re- 
taliation. Many of the epistles were written in 
dungeons and prisons, yet there is no word of re- 
venge nor vindictiveness. No diamond cut dia- 
mond. This may be true of Christians to-day. The 
Spirit of Nemesis must be driven out of them. All 
bitterness and strife, all malice and guile, all hypo- 
cricies and envies and all evil speaking must be for- 
ever gone. Where this is lacking it is simply proof 


Fruit of the Holy Spirit. i8 7 

that the Holy Spirit is not received as the Lord has 
given him. 

IX. Temperance is the last cluster of the fruit of 
the Spirit . Temperance in the scriptures does not 
mean what we mean by temperance today. We have 
narrowed the meaning of the word into abstinence. 
Then we have specialized it into prohibition ; then we 
have localized it into party prohibition. But in the 
scripture the word means self-control. Not absti- 
nence from intoxication, but self control in body, 
soul and spirit. - 

Every ship on the seas of earth has a certain flag 
that is kept for use. It is not the flag of the coun- 
try to which the boat belongs. It is not a flag of 
rank to signify what officer controls the boat. It is 
not a flag to signify a man-of-war, or merchantman. 
No, it is the same kind of a flag on every ship, so 
that when the machinery is broken and the boat is 
drifting that flag is lifted to the breeze, signifying 
“Not under control.” How many flags of that kind 
are floating over the little vessels of human life. 
When the young man goes into saloons and wastes 
his money he floats the flag, “Not under control.” 
When this other young man spends his money for 
cigars or cigarettes he puts up that flag, “Not 
under control.” I asked a book merchant in one of 


i88 Life and Times of Holy Spirit. 

my charges, how much his store was worth. 
“$5,000.” How much have you wasted in smoking 
cigars, “More than $5,000.” How much cleaner 
are you — not so clean? How much stronger — 
not so strong? For thirty years he had floated this 
flag “Not under control.” I see a man — sulky and 
cold, thinking himself to be something when he is 
nothing, and I see the flag “Not under control.” 
Patience would be there. I hear a man using short, 
snappy words and putting in some electric flashes. 
I see the flag waving “Not under control,” and in 
all these kind of cases if that keeps on disaster will 
come at the end. 

This grace is given last not because it is the least, 
but because it belongs to all and is all important. 
This is the salt of all the other graces. It is the 
preserver of love; the safeguard of joy; the nour- 
isher of peace; the support of long-suffering ; the 
mother of gentleness and meekness. If the body, 
soul and spirit are without self control, not a single 
grace can grow. Instead of love there will be en- 
mity ; instead of joy there will be sorrow ; instead of 
peace there will be contention and strife ; instead of 
long suffering there will be irritation; instead of 
gentleness there will be harshness. Goodness will 


Fruit of the Holy Spirit. 189 

be supplanted by selfishness; faithfulness by dis- 
obedience and meekness by rebellion against God. 

Our physical well being, our mental worth, our 
moral development, our emotional happiness, our 
spiritual tranquility all depend on the self-control 
of body, soul and spirit. 

The Spirit has been given us that every Christian 
might abstain from every form of self-indulgence, 
so that whether in word or deed, whether in eat- 
ing or drinking or whatsoever he doeth, he might do 
all to the glory of God. 

These are the nine clusters of the fruit of the 
Spirit. What beautiful clusters they are that the 
Spirit intends to bring forth in every one of our 
lives! Perfect love to God and man! Joy inex- 
pressible and full of glory! Peace that passeth 
all understanding! Long suffering with joyfulness! 
Gentleness without softness ! Goodness without in- 
sipidity! Faithfulness without stubbornness! 
Meekness without mu rmu rings ! Self control in ab- 
staining from every form of evil, never lifted up 
with increase, or cast down with loss — what beauti- 
ful clusters! Let us endeavor to bear them all by 
receiving and abiding in the Holy Spirit. 















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